I switched from Android (Galaxy S4) simply because I liked how clean iOS is and so I could finally sideload my xcode projects to my phone and use them. Sacrificed some battery life, out-of-box customizability (cmon 9.1 jailbreak grrr), expansion options, and paid a little bit more but I am happy I did. I know I'm not alone and am curious what the reason is why others switched. Was it hardware, camera, iOS, name brand, customer support, etc..? I know switching OSes after dedicating money and experience to a specific one is no easy task... so there must be some solid reasons to.
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Those who switched from Android... why?
- Thread starter lamborghini392
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I switched only because the new galaxy note went back to being just like the iPhone was (for the reason I switched in the first place). Made it with no sd slot, no removable battery. So figured since I have macbook and other Apple supplies I just went back with the iphone
I am still using my Galaxy S4, but if I switch to iOS, it will because updates from Samsung are not issued for anything over a year old. I don't mind being behind with the OS, but I DO mind not getting security updates. Grr!
This is what completely ruled Note 5 out for me. It wasn't very smart to remove one of their biggest selling points.
I switched my Samsung S5 because the apps were often buggy, the launcher would crash, it was very laggy (and getting worse over time), and the battery life wasn't good. I was an iPhone user before the S5, and still had an iPad, so going back to iOS was easy. Glad I did it, although there's a few things I miss, like the notification LED and wireless charging.
There was a recent thread about this... Might be worth looking up.
C
There was a recent thread about this... Might be worth looking up.
C
Had a Galaxy S4 for two years. The first year it was ok, but after that it became slower. It never got updated past 4.4.2 and that pissed me off how there was no more updates after only one year. Plus all the bloat from Samsung and AT&T. The damn thing was consuming 900mb of RAM at idle with no apps open. That's not acceptable.
3 weeks ago today I got the new iphone 6S and I am satisfied.
3 weeks ago today I got the new iphone 6S and I am satisfied.
Daily driver was a Moto X for the better part of the year. Switched back because the iPhone just has so much more fluidity, better form factor, quality of apps, availability of accessories.
Android to me is still a hot mess with too much fragmentation and unreliability of updates and compatibility. I like Android, but iOS just does more for me.
Android to me is still a hot mess with too much fragmentation and unreliability of updates and compatibility. I like Android, but iOS just does more for me.
This has been my experience with my work issued SGS5. I will upgrade to an iPhone as soon as I'm eligible for an upgrade. Sadly, that's not for another year.
I've got a personal Note 4, but I will don't have an Android as my primary personal vice.
I switched because having an Android device (Galaxy s5) for 6 months was one of the most frustrating experiences I've ever endured. I tried hard to get used to it, but it continued to do very annoying things including:
- very laggy on a daily basis
- would turn on in my pocket for some reason, start many apps, and then get really hot... worst was when it started playing iheartradio on its on at full volume and it wasn't easy to stop it. I would take the battery out when going into a quite place like a theater or church for fear it would come on.
- stagefight virus caused me to disable autoloading images in messages... so every one I had to separately hit download. as far as I know, there never was an update to the phone to fix this. If it were apple, everyone would have gotten an update in a few days. so say what you want, but security in android is horrible when you don't get fixes for exploits.
- the myriad of settings screens I never fully understood... and seemed way more confusing than iOS for no noticeable benefit.
- All the widgets were just gimmicky to me. I never really found any practical use for them beyond what I can get from iOS's today screen.
- battery life was unpredictable and terrible. Some times the phone would just get really hot and the battery would drain so fast you could notice the percent counting down.
- the fingerprint reader was a joke. Going back to the iPhone 5s, the fingerprint reader worked so smoothly. The Galaxy just made it a chore and usually took several tries to get it to take. That feature alone is so useful for unlocking when it works.
- the quality of the apps seemed to be better to me.
Need I go on?
There were a few things I did like on it.
- Google now seems to be pretty good with its predictive help (compared to Siri), but I don't regularly use any of the Google tools except for Gmail, but probably would have moved more that way given how it worked.
- The OLED display had a nice color saturation to it that made it "pop" compared to iPhone 6s Plus's screen.
- The Galaxy s5, though it looked kind of cheap, seemed to be pretty durable as I had dropped it many times without a case and the plastic seemed to absorb that much better than the aluminum iPhone cases. It kind of bounced I guess.
- Having a removable battery is nice, although I never bought a second battery to have as a spare. Now with the 6s Plus, the battery life is so good that I can't imagine it ever being a problem. When I was in Europe walking around for the day and using the GPS with the Galaxy, I bought a charging brick and had to stop several times to recharge the Galaxy. Did the same thing a few weeks ago with the 6s Plus and I had no problem navigating around all day with it and had battery left to spare at the end of the day.
What I don't care about is the more customization abilities of Android. It just added to confusion and instability in my opinion.
- very laggy on a daily basis
- would turn on in my pocket for some reason, start many apps, and then get really hot... worst was when it started playing iheartradio on its on at full volume and it wasn't easy to stop it. I would take the battery out when going into a quite place like a theater or church for fear it would come on.
- stagefight virus caused me to disable autoloading images in messages... so every one I had to separately hit download. as far as I know, there never was an update to the phone to fix this. If it were apple, everyone would have gotten an update in a few days. so say what you want, but security in android is horrible when you don't get fixes for exploits.
- the myriad of settings screens I never fully understood... and seemed way more confusing than iOS for no noticeable benefit.
- All the widgets were just gimmicky to me. I never really found any practical use for them beyond what I can get from iOS's today screen.
- battery life was unpredictable and terrible. Some times the phone would just get really hot and the battery would drain so fast you could notice the percent counting down.
- the fingerprint reader was a joke. Going back to the iPhone 5s, the fingerprint reader worked so smoothly. The Galaxy just made it a chore and usually took several tries to get it to take. That feature alone is so useful for unlocking when it works.
- the quality of the apps seemed to be better to me.
Need I go on?
There were a few things I did like on it.
- Google now seems to be pretty good with its predictive help (compared to Siri), but I don't regularly use any of the Google tools except for Gmail, but probably would have moved more that way given how it worked.
- The OLED display had a nice color saturation to it that made it "pop" compared to iPhone 6s Plus's screen.
- The Galaxy s5, though it looked kind of cheap, seemed to be pretty durable as I had dropped it many times without a case and the plastic seemed to absorb that much better than the aluminum iPhone cases. It kind of bounced I guess.
- Having a removable battery is nice, although I never bought a second battery to have as a spare. Now with the 6s Plus, the battery life is so good that I can't imagine it ever being a problem. When I was in Europe walking around for the day and using the GPS with the Galaxy, I bought a charging brick and had to stop several times to recharge the Galaxy. Did the same thing a few weeks ago with the 6s Plus and I had no problem navigating around all day with it and had battery left to spare at the end of the day.
What I don't care about is the more customization abilities of Android. It just added to confusion and instability in my opinion.
Biggest reason is that every time i get a non nexus android phone, i have to spend an hour disabling bloat.
All of you guys complaining about lag, slow updates, etc., need to stop using Samsung devices and give the Nexus a shot. The new 5X and 6P are excellent performers, instant updates, awesome camera, great build quality (6P), best fingerprint scanner on any phone, and great battery life. Not to mention they are nearly half the price of Apple and other phones like Samsung and LG have.
I'm concerned with how easily the 6p bends. That's one of the reasons I like the iPhone 6s; for the 7000 aluminium.
The fingerprint scanner is similar in performance to that of the iPhone 6s, however, the 6s has it in a better location.
Unlocked the nexus 6p 64GB is only £49 cheaper than the iPhone 6s Plus 64GB. (UK)
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Honestly, the Samsung Galaxy s5 was given to my by work. After 6 months, I dislike it so badly that I bought an iPhone 6s Plus with my own money to stop using it. I don't know that I would go back to Android again... bloat or not, its just not the experience I want to deal with and constant friction with the ecosystem that my whole family uses. The Nexus probably gets updates to security risks more frequently too I would guess, is that true?
The Samsung Note 3 was one of my favourite phones. If only it weren't for that horrible plastic bezel!
It's battery life was incredible, and I could swap it with a spare if I ever forgot to charge it. I had a 64GB micro SD card in there loaded with movies for when I travelled! I never found it lagged, and there was plenty of accessories to go with it. After a year of use though the cheap plastic bezel looked terrible.
What made me go back to an iPhone was the Notes durability and Apple's continuity & and adoption of phablets. Being able to receive/send texts & calls, sync notes, pages and contacts across all my devices was a game changer.
It's battery life was incredible, and I could swap it with a spare if I ever forgot to charge it. I had a 64GB micro SD card in there loaded with movies for when I travelled! I never found it lagged, and there was plenty of accessories to go with it. After a year of use though the cheap plastic bezel looked terrible.
What made me go back to an iPhone was the Notes durability and Apple's continuity & and adoption of phablets. Being able to receive/send texts & calls, sync notes, pages and contacts across all my devices was a game changer.
The bending thing is out of control, unlike the iPhone 6 Plus #bendgate, the 6P is not bending in peoples pockets, it's only bending when some youtubers try to.
The 6S has a great fingerprint scanner as well, but personally once you try it on the back of the phone you'll never want to switch. With large phones like the 6P and 6S Plus, it's awkward to put your finger on the home button to unlock when picking it up with one hand, as it feels like you will drop it. With it on the back, you pick it up with either hand and your finger naturally goes right to the fingerprint scanner. You don't have to press either, just put your finger on the reader and it unlocks.
The Nexus 6P 64GB is $549 vs $849. $300 is a LOT.
The Nexus family get monthly security updates, plus new feature and OS updates as soon as Google releases them.
I applaud Google for trying to innovate by putting the reader on the back, but frankly I don't find it very difficult to pick up the 6s Plus and hit the reader on the front immediately... with one hand or two. Its basically muscle memory either way, but I have never tried one on the back. If Apple eventually gets rid of the home button, they'll probably have to put the reader on the back too.
Coincidentally, I was watching Leo Laporte's "The Tech Guy" podcast this weekend and he was having a big problem with his Nexus that caused it to take about 30 seconds for the camera to take a picture. He eventually wiped it and reloaded during the show. For anyone that is familiar with him, he's been pretty negative on iPhones for the last couple of years and almost seemed to be an Android fanboy at times. With the 6s Plus, he is firmly back in the iOS phone camp so I believe if he is liking it over the Nexus by quite a bit. What he's continually said is that the iPhone 6s Plus is the ONLY smartphone that can get him through a whole day with battery life to spare, and I don't think there is a flagship phone that he's not tried.
I think Google really needs to solve the update thing. Its not acceptable for a smartphone to have to go months without an update to a security exploit... totally unacceptable. I've read that they intend to fix it, but I'm skeptical. They are always going to be a the mercy of the 3rd parties who add on to the OS, and there are so many of them. Apple has a significant advantage with their ability to push updates on their own.
You are right, Nexus devices are a whole different breed and have always performed better than Samsung with crapwiz. Had a chance to play with my friends 6P for a few hours and overall was impressed. The camera which a Nexus sore spot is so much better than previous iterations. I didn't use it long enough but battery life still isn't great when compared to 6s+. My friend gets about 4-5 hrs with moderate to heavy usage. On my 6s+ if I get less than 8 hours it's because I was gaming for half that time. Still overall, very impressed with 6P and IMHO the best Android device available (moto x pure edition being a close second).
My carrier made mistake and only charged me 40% of the retail price for my 6S+ 
. And the extra RAM and incredible battery life. I haven't had the smoothest of experiences though. Already swapped out once due to Touch ID unlock lag. Im going to try getting this one swapped today for the same problem.
. And the extra RAM and incredible battery life. I haven't had the smoothest of experiences though. Already swapped out once due to Touch ID unlock lag. Im going to try getting this one swapped today for the same problem.