iPhone XR Thinking of switching from Pixel to iPhone XR. I have questions

[tamara6]

We got my daughter an iPhone 4s when she graduated from high school. I got a 5s two years later. She got the 6 a year after that, and we gave my husband the 4s. She graduated from college and got a job and bought herself a 7, and my husband got the 6. Last year she bought the SX for herself and I got the 7. My 5s and her 4s are still functional (we took the 5s to Europe to use as a spare phone). So iPhones have worked very well in my family, the way we keep handing them on. We only had to fix the 6 (speaker issue) and new battery - it cost about $60.

Meanwhile, we got my son a Samsung Galaxy (can't remember the model number) when he graduated from high school. After two years he needed a new phone - the galaxy had developed a large pink stripe down the screen. It was not passed on to anyone. It was replaced with a Pixel, along with the google "insurance." The GPS went out after a year and a half. We sent it in. The new one was a referb and the speaker didn't work. Sent that one back, the second one overheated, sent that one back - it took 4 replacements before we finally got one that worked properly. He's had that phone for almost a year, but now the battery dies after about 5 hours of usage. He wants to replace it with an iPhone 11 because our iPhones seem to last forever. And the Pixel will become yet another android phone that won't be passed on to anyone.

I understand the android vs iOS thing. My son really loves the freedom of the android operating systems. And I can totally understand. But the apple hardware can't be beat.

All this to say that your decision to go with the iPhone is a good one.

 

[Tsepz]

We got my daughter an iPhone 4s when she graduated from high school. I got a 5s two years later. She got the 6 a year after that, and we gave my husband the 4s. She graduated from college and got a job and bought herself a 7, and my husband got the 6. Last year she bought the SX for herself and I got the 7. My 5s and her 4s are still functional (we took the 5s to Europe to use as a spare phone). So iPhones have worked very well in my family, the way we keep handing them on. We only had to fix the 6 (speaker issue) and new battery - it cost about $60.

Meanwhile, we got my son a Samsung Galaxy (can't remember the model number) when he graduated from high school. After two years he needed a new phone - the galaxy had developed a large pink stripe down the screen. It was not passed on to anyone. It was replaced with a Pixel, along with the google "insurance." The GPS went out after a year and a half. We sent it in. The new one was a referb and the speaker didn't work. Sent that one back, the second one overheated, sent that one back - it took 4 replacements before we finally got one that worked properly. He's had that phone for almost a year, but now the battery dies after about 5 hours of usage. He wants to replace it with an iPhone 11 because our iPhones seem to last forever. And the Pixel will become yet another android phone that won't be passed on to anyone.

I understand the android vs iOS thing. My son really loves the freedom of the android operating systems. And I can totally understand. But the apple hardware can't be beat.

All this to say that your decision to go with the iPhone is a good one.

It sounds like you mostly just had hard luck with the Androids.

I have had many Androids and passed them down to others in my family, friends and employees (housekeepers, gardeners etc....) with no problems.

Right now our housekeeper lost her phone when she was pick pocketed at the taxi rank, I took out my trusty old Samsung Galaxy S2 (flagship from 2011) for her and she has been using it without a single bit of trouble for the past month, it’s still got its original battery in there to, yet still gets her though most of the day, she tops up the battery before she goes home. not bad for a 8 year old phone I’d say.

Guess it’s all down to luck and how well the phone is kept, amongst other factors e.g. hard usage, charging habits and if the phone was built well.

 

[bvz]

We got my daughter an iPhone 4s when she graduated from high school. I got a 5s two years later. She got the 6 a year after that, and we gave my husband the 4s. She graduated from college and got a job and bought herself a 7, and my husband got the 6. Last year she bought the SX for herself and I got the 7. My 5s and her 4s are still functional (we took the 5s to Europe to use as a spare phone). So iPhones have worked very well in my family, the way we keep handing them on. We only had to fix the 6 (speaker issue) and new battery - it cost about $60.

Meanwhile, we got my son a Samsung Galaxy (can't remember the model number) when he graduated from high school. After two years he needed a new phone - the galaxy had developed a large pink stripe down the screen. It was not passed on to anyone. It was replaced with a Pixel, along with the google "insurance." The GPS went out after a year and a half. We sent it in. The new one was a referb and the speaker didn't work. Sent that one back, the second one overheated, sent that one back - it took 4 replacements before we finally got one that worked properly. He's had that phone for almost a year, but now the battery dies after about 5 hours of usage. He wants to replace it with an iPhone 11 because our iPhones seem to last forever. And the Pixel will become yet another android phone that won't be passed on to anyone.

I understand the android vs iOS thing. My son really loves the freedom of the android operating systems. And I can totally understand. But the apple hardware can't be beat.

All this to say that your decision to go with the iPhone is a good one.

Both my wife and I have been super happy with our Pixel phones, but that hasn't always been the case with the Android phones we've owned.

The best phone I've ever owned, bar none, was my Moto X. The build quality in that phone was second to none. The screen to body ratio was, at the time, unbeatable. The screen itself was fantastic, and the curved leather back meant it was a joy to pick up every time. I even liked the couple of additions that Motorola added to the otherwise stock Android.

But prior to that was the Galaxy S2 which never managed to keep its GPS working (and the Samsung bloatware was amazing garbage). The Droid X before that was kind of a nightmare too. The iPhone 3G (three of them!) that I had before that was decent enough, but suffered from a screen that kept sputtering out (to be fair, it was one of the very first one manufactured - and after two replacements, the third one turned out to be a decent enough phone).

After my Moto X I had a Nexus 5X which I also loved right up to the day (one week after the warranty ended) it boot looped.

So... Fantastic Pixel (only issue is that it was abandoned by Google) and even more fantastic Moto X (except that it too was abandoned - after 1 year!). And the rest was kind of garbage.

I'm hopeful that the iPhone will be as resilient as you say. From anecdotal evidence of my friends it would seem that there is a good chance it will be. So... I guess welcome back to the fold for me.

 

[eustachio]

When do you get the iPhones? Interested to hear how you find them.

I'm planning to switch to iphone from Pixel 3. Had mine 13 months and battery life is terrible now.

We had had several MacBooks over the years, the hardware is unbeatable. Current MacBook pro that my wife has is nearly 4 years old, feels like a new machine.

I have the latest 2018 pro through work, it's good though feels a little less solid.

My son has an iPhone 6, still like new although feels slow compared to newer models.

Anyway, apple hardware is seriously well put together.

 

[bvz]

When do you get the iPhones? Interested to hear how you find them.

I'm planning to switch to iphone from Pixel 3. Had mine 13 months and battery life is terrible now.

We had had several MacBooks over the years, the hardware is unbeatable. Current MacBook pro that my wife has is nearly 4 years old, feels like a new machine.

I have the latest 2018 pro through work, it's good though feels a little less solid.

My son has an iPhone 6, still like new although feels slow compared to newer models.

Anyway, apple hardware is seriously well put together.

I was going to wait until after the New year to get them, with the hope that they might have a small discount.

I might not be able to wait though.

Regardless, I'll post back here once over gotten them with my first impressions. But any new phone, Android or iPhone, will probably have good first impressions. It's iOS that I'll have to get used to.

 

[TimothyL]

I would make a little sacrifice and buy an iPhone 11.
A better product, even if iPhone XR is still a valid smartphone.
[automerge]1574083027[/automerge]

since you are planning to keep the phone for 3 years, I would insist on iPhone 11.

I agree with this: get the 11. It’s basically the new XR but will last you longer

 

[FlyingDutch]

I agree with this: get the 11. It’s basically the new XR but will last you longer

I own both (my wife is using an XR, my elder son an 11).
While they both are great phones, the 11 is basically better in any single aspect.

 

[bvz]

We've pretty much settled in the 11. It was night mode that clinched it, but there are enough other small perks that help with the decision as well.

Still on my pixel at the moment, but I figure sometime early next year we'll take the plunge.

One side benefit is that I'll install lineage OS on my Pixel and see how that plays out. Mostly because I'm a nerd and I enjoy that kind of buffoonery, but also partly to see whether a third party OS is even feasible for me. But I'm not interested in doing that on a device that I am using on a daily basis.

Now that we've made the decision, I'm itching to get the new phones. I know I'm going to be annoyed with iOS at first because I'm not used to it (and particularly in those places where Android is better). But I'm also really looking forward to finding out the areas where iOS is superior, and I'm looking forward to having what is more or less a flagship phone (I know: it isn't the pro, but it's damn close).

Also: new shiny!

 

[bvz]

Just got the new phones. Two iPhone 11's (128 GB). Thanks all for the help.

As expected, I'm really missing some things from Android. The inability to control what my home screen looks like is making me a little crazy. A grid of icons (where I can't even leave a gap between any of them) feels really old to me. Kind of like going back to windows 95 after using MacOS. From a usability standpoint it is light years behind Android, and really hinders the usability of the phone compared to my old phone.

The second thing that drives me crazy is the lack of widgets. The amount of tapping it takes to get to even basic information that was always available to me at a glance is frustrating. The single page of widgets that I do get also seems like a massive step backwards (much like the semi useless grid of icons). So much space wasted on each widget, and yet I still have to keep swiping up and down to get to hidden information because, for some inexplicable reason, Apple only gives you a single page. And even on this page you have no ability to lay out the widgets. It's just a list. It almost feels like people asked for widgets like they have on Android and Apple decided to purposely mess it up out of spite. I can't imagine why else they would offer such a piss poor implementation.

And my final gripe is with the keyboards. The stock keyboard is kind of weak with regard to features (though I'm just starting to use it). The stock keyboard swiping does feel fairly accurate though...

The third party keyboards like SwiftKey are feature deprived compared to their android counterparts.

But...

There are some things I also really really like about the new phones.

The battery life has been great. Absolutely fantastic in fact.

I really like how Apple has collected all of the different settings in one place, even for all of the apps. This is way better than how android lets each app handle its own preferences in random places. It also makes me feel like I’m not accidentally missing some critical, security related setting. On Android I had to poke around to find the settings that may or may not affect how my information leaks.

I feel a LOT better about the security of my phone now (one of the primary reasons I switched). The emphasis on privacy seems much more front and center.

The build quality feels really good, and the screen (though not an OLED and therefore missing the always on display that I could have gotten on a pixel 3a) is big, crystal clear, and very bright. I greatly prefer a bright screen over the minor benefits that OLED offers.

The stock keyboard, even though it is missing features, seems to be much more accurate when I swipe than a lot of the Android keyboards are. This goes a long way to mitigating the missing features and is, arguably, much more important than having more features (though I’d love to hand both).

I know I’ll find other things that I really like as I continue to use the thing as well. I’ve only had it one day so far.

All of the negatives I described above were things I already knew I’d hate. I felt there were enough advantages (longevity of the device mostly) to offset these disadvantages to warrant dropping the extra money and putting up with the deficiencies. I still feel that way.

Maybe Apple will eventually modernize their launcher? Not holding my breath, but a guy can hope. Even if not, those gripes are, in the grand scheme, fairly minor. And while I sound really negative above, I’m generally very happy with my purchases.

Just thought I’d share my impressions so far.

 

[bvz]

A couple of days more now and some more observations...

I’ll start with the negatives again, but not because they are particularly bad.

The keyboard is pretty good, but I’m not in love with the fact that the audio transcription starts each session by capitalizing the first word. Often I’m adding in the middle of a sentence and then have to go back and correct the capitalization.

Capitalization as a whole seems a bit less accurate as well. I am occasionally getting random capitalizations in places I don’t expect them.

Fixing capitalization also feels more complicated than necessary. On my pixel I would just tap on the word and then swipe up on the shift key. I would then be presented with capitalization options which I could quickly switch out.

I’m also annoyed that there isn’t a notification light. If I leave the phone for a moment and then return I don’t know if I’ve missed a call, message, or email. I have to pick the phone up to see that. On my pixel all I had to do was glance at the phone and I’d instantly see whether I had missed anything.

On the plus side, the voice transcription (capitalization aside) is every bit as fast and accurate as Google’s.

The whole feel of the phone is very fluid. Android isn’t bad, but the iPhone just somehow feels smoother. It’s not really something I ever cared about before, but now that I have it, I quite like it.

The photos are also very good. I was spoiled by the pixel with regard to photography, but I give up nothing with the iPhone. I haven’t done any specific comparisons, but I’d guess that the pictures are probably much better with the iPhone.

I’ll keep posting my observations as I use the phone. I’ve only used it for about two days so far (I had to switch back to my android for a bit because I didn’t have a case for my iPhone yet). In time I expect my experience with the phone will lead to shorter negative’s lists and longer positives.

Still feeling like it was a good purchase so far.

 

[bvz]

Another, quick update on my experiences so far.

Just positives this time.

I just spent a little time setting up my apps and purchasing a few new ones. The App Store experience is MUCH nicer than the Google Android Play store. It is super smooth, and very easy to upgrade from shareware to paid apps.

 

[UrbanGeek]

I have used android and ios. I like android fine but ios is a lot more simple to use and does more than I need. Not to mention I have so much of my stuff in the Apple ecosystem. I went with a Note 10 for a few weeks but went back to iPhone. I ended up getting the 11 Pro Max and its by far my favorite iPhone.

Battery life is outstanding, camera is great, ios 13 is getting some grief and things do need to be tweaked and fixed but its working good for me. Im really pleased with the iPhone 11 Pro Max. Is it ground breaking in terms of design? Not hugely. But I absolutely love it.

 

[one more]

For night mode camera shots, many people recommended NeuralCam night mode camera app

NeuralCam AI Camera

neural.cam

However, Apple’s native night mode is really well implemented on their iPhone 11 (Pro) lines.

 

[bvz]

One minor nit:

While I like the way Apple has laid out settings (all gathered together), it would be nice if I could get a shortcut to those settings from within an app. I am in Messages, and I want to change the way it behaves. To do so, I have to go all the way back to the main screen and then into settings and then search for Messages.

I tried using Siri, and it was able to get me into Settings, but I couldn’t get directly into the settings for messages. It just switch me into the settings app (wherever I happened to be last).
[automerge]1578769713[/automerge]

I have used android and ios. I like android fine but ios is a lot more simple to use and does more than I need. Not to mention I have so much of my stuff in the Apple ecosystem. I went with a Note 10 for a few weeks but went back to iPhone. I ended up getting the 11 Pro Max and its by far my favorite iPhone.

Battery life is outstanding, camera is great, ios 13 is getting some grief and things do need to be tweaked and fixed but its working good for me. Im really pleased with the iPhone 11 Pro Max. Is it ground breaking in terms of design? Not hugely. But I absolutely love it.

I’m rather enjoying having switched, not so much because I think iOS better than Android, but rather because it is just different.

Being exposed to a different way of doing things is really refreshing. It shows me the things that I prefer about Android (including some I didn’t even know I’d miss) but it also shows me its many shortcomings. Many of these shortcomings are things that I hadn’t even thought about until I experienced a new way of doing things.

edit to fix grammar. Dictation doesn’t understand the difference between its and it’s. It’s the same with android in this regard.