Those who switched from Android... why?

[Laserducky]

I switched years ago after my Android progressively got worse every day. Performance got slower, battery lasted shorter, and the amount of stuttering and crashing increased steadily. After about 6 months, the phone was almost unusable. This was back on Honeycomb, I think, but it left a horrible impression for my first Android phone.

I'm sure it's improved some since then, but I feel like I'd be gambling. I watch my friend's HTC One M8 take an absolute nosedive after the first year. Now, it won't even power on despite numerous attempts to save it. He switched to iPhone when the 6S came out, and he said his favorite thing about switching was "the fact that I can actually use my phone."

I guess it varies from device to device and user to user. My wife's HTC One M8 was a great phone and even after a year of usage, its still very fast. She left it because she got the iPhone 6s.

Cheers !

 

[AppleFanatic10]

I switched because after not even 6 months with the Samsung Galaxy S3 it started breaking down. My S3 was brand new and it was already slowing down. The camera started displaying this blue dot every time I would take a picture that was very dark. On top of that the battery was HORRIBLE. So disappointed I traded in my iPhone 5 for that. No idea what I was thinking. Learned last year that it is grass is not greener on the other side. Android looks nice but it's just not as polished as iOS is.

Thinking back, it could've just been the phone I had. At the time I really wanted an HTC One, but couldn't afford it; so I settled with the S3. Which I regret very much. I should've just got the phone I originally wanted. But hey, you live and you learn.

 

[geoff5093]

I switched because after not even 6 months with the Samsung Galaxy S3 it started breaking down. My S3 was brand new and it was already slowing down. The camera started displaying this blue dot every time I would take a picture that was very dark. On top of that the battery was HORRIBLE. So disappointed I traded in my iPhone 5 for that. No idea what I was thinking. Learned last year that it is grass is not greener on the other side. Android looks nice but it's just not as polished as iOS is.

Thinking back, it could've just been the phone I had. At the time I really wanted an HTC One, but couldn't afford it; so I settled with the S3. Which I regret very much. I should've just got the phone I originally wanted. But hey, you live and you learn.

This is the biggest reason why people don't like Android. Instead of buying a top of the like phone, they settle for an older and cheaper model. If you want a good android experience, you need to get a stock or flagship model. Even brand new, the S3 was awful.

 

[convergent]

Certainly. And I prefer not having to turn off my phone if I need a recharge But to be honest I haven't had to use my battery pack even once since I got the 6S Plus. Excellent battery life even with heavy use.

My experience exactly. I have an external pack I carry when traveling, but its a pack that can recharge my laptop if I need it on a long international flight, or it can recharge my phone a couple of times. When I had a Galaxy S5, I was using that thing all the time... battery would just tank without any apparent reason. Since I got the 6s Plus, the battery life has been incredible... I almost always have about 40% left at the end of the day. Love it!

 

[pika2000]

Dramatic much? You're describing a situation where someone looks at their phone and it's at 1%, and they need to make that emergency call and are struggling to swap batteries.

In reality, you look at your phone throughout the day and you may find that before lunch you're at 50%, or before dinner you are at 25%, point being you know when your battery is almost dead. So with a second battery you wait until you are taking a break, whether it be a bathroom break, lunch break, or waiting for your friend, and you take the battery out of your pocket to swap them. Sure if you have an Otterbox it's a pain, but many don't use cases, or use those thin silicon cases that slide right off. You don't need to power it down, you just pop the back off, swap them, turn it back on, and put it back in your pocket. When you go to use it again it's at 100%.

Now compare that to your scenario. You look at your phone throughout the day, see it hit 50%, then 25%, and you need to think about charging it back up. Now instead of finding 2 minutes in your day to be without your phone, you need to either throw your phone in your backpack connected to the charger, or have a clunky battery charging your phone in your pocket, making it virtually impossibly to use while moving until it's done charging. Then you have the potential problem where you thought you could be without it for an hour, but after 5 minutes something comes up and you need to leave.

TL;DR - A removable battery gives you the choice to swap them in 2 minutes and be right back at 100%, or use a portable charger. Without this, you have to use the charger and keep your phone connected for an hour or two to get back to 100%.

Not powering down your phone and removing its battery is like pulling the cord off your PC to turn it off. Regardless of the type of case, you still have to take the phone out, open the back, etc. It's still a pain to be interrupted. That's what I call clunky. And before having your "break," you will be worrying about your battery life. How do you charge your extra battery? And how often do you remember to charge it?

Have you seen today's external battery packs? Impossible to use while moving? They are far from clunky. I just saw one not much larger than a deck of cards, but has 10000mAH battery capacity. Smaller ones are so compact that they are easily pocketable. And the extra boost of power can be used anytime, not having to wait for your break. I can just plug it in whenever, and unplug it when I want to use my phone. I don't need to make it into 100%. I don't even need to think about when to charge since it's available whenever without me having to interrupt my activities. And at the end of the day, I can charge my phone, and I charge my external battery pack easily. In your scenario, you are stuck with an empty battery while your phone is charging, then you have to do the switcharoo again. That gets old after a while.

I remember the days of Palm PDA where one has to replace its AAA batteries. Guess what happened, Handspring put built-in lithium ion, and consumers moved on.

 

[kargurin]

This is the biggest reason why people don't like Android. Instead of buying a top of the like phone, they settle for an older and cheaper model. If you want a good android experience, you need to get a stock or flagship model. Even brand new, the S3 was awful.

Like say the Note 5. Which I prefer over the Plus which is going on Craigslist once I get it unlocked.

 

[CNeufeld]

This is the biggest reason why people don't like Android. Instead of buying a top of the like phone, they settle for an older and cheaper model. If you want a good android experience, you need to get a stock or flagship model. Even brand new, the S3 was awful.

The S3 wasn't the flagship model when it was released?

C

 

[geoff5093]

Not powering down your phone and removing its battery is like pulling the cord off your PC to turn it off. Regardless of the type of case, you still have to take the phone out, open the back, etc. It's still a pain to be interrupted. That's what I call clunky. And before having your "break," you will be worrying about your battery life. How do you charge your extra battery? And how often do you remember to charge it?

Have you seen today's external battery packs? Impossible to use while moving? They are far from clunky. I just saw one not much larger than a deck of cards, but has 10000mAH battery capacity. Smaller ones are so compact that they are easily pocketable. And the extra boost of power can be used anytime, not having to wait for your break. I can just plug it in whenever, and unplug it when I want to use my phone. I don't need to make it into 100%. I don't even need to think about when to charge since it's available whenever without me having to interrupt my activities. And at the end of the day, I can charge my phone, and I charge my external battery pack easily. In your scenario, you are stuck with an empty battery while your phone is charging, then you have to do the switcharoo again. That gets old after a while.

I remember the days of Palm PDA where one has to replace its AAA batteries. Guess what happened, Handspring put built-in lithium ion, and consumers moved on.

You know you can do this on Androids too, right? Having a removable battery just gives people the CHOICE if they wish to charge their phone for 1-2 hours and have to severely limit their use while it's charging, or take 2 minutes to swap batteries.

Again, I had a removable battery Android and most of the time I did use a portable battery pack as I didn't want to turn it off. However there were rare times when I did not want or couldn't carry around a battery pack and USB cable easily, like when I am out all day and just wear jeans or khakis, it's peace of mind knowing you have a spare battery that is as large as a few quarters and will provide you with 100% power if needed.

Charging these is simple, my G4 came with a battery charger only slightly larger than the battery itself. You simply plug in a micro USB cable into it to charge it.

The S3 wasn't the flagship model when it was released?

C

It was, but you're talking about 3 years ago. Android flagships have come a long way since then.

 

[cableguy84]

I had the original nexus 1 and loved it , moved between loads of different phones due to network issues.

Then started using a 4s when it was first released , tried moving back to android after using iphones for 3 years.
I lasted about 2 days and moved back to apple, mainly due to ios and how well everything is integrated.

 

[CNeufeld]

It was, but you're talking about 3 years ago. Android flagships have come a long way since then.

So have iPhones...

C

 

[geoff5093]

So have iPhones...

C

Not nearly as much. A lot about the look of the iPhone ui has remain unchanged for years.

 

[cynics]

I slowly moved over from Android mostly because I switched to OS X from Windows and iOS compliments it.

I liked Android enough, just preferred iOS for my use.

The thing that turned me off from Android was there wasn't an all in one device I liked. If I found a device with exceptional battery life it took crap pictures. If I found one that took good pictures it wouldn't have NFC. Etc etc.

iPhone while not perfect was a good compromise between all the features I need/wanted plus more.

Also, and this will sound weird, I don't like too much customization. It's like was I was addicted to modifying my Android devices, roms, skins, overclocking, undervolting, etc etc. I understand you don't need to do that stuff but my geek nature had me constantly modifying it. The level of customization iOS offers is just what I need.

 

[Septembersrain]

My reason was really ridiculous. I just saw a blue 5c and got interested. Fell in love with it and use iPhone as my primary device.

I still use an Android but only as a media device.

I'm also using a BlackBerry Z10 and Lumia 640. I love electronics.

 

[aKansasKid]

I just finished ordering a SIM-free 64 GB Space Gray 6s, to be delivered tomorrow. It will replace my perfectly fine Galaxy S4. It will have a smaller screen, worse keyboard, and non-removable battery. And I spent the extra $100 for 64 GB since it doesn't have SD card support. I actually like using my Galaxy S4 with Lollipop (5.0.1) over my wife's iPhone 5 running iOS 9.1. And since I'm recently retired I won't be able to take advantage of the iPhone's superior notifications. Not that I mind, mind you.

So why did I order it? For starters, I'm the only non-iMessage member of my extended family. Add to that the guarantee of OS updates and, more importantly, security updates. Moreover, my bank supports Apple Pay but not Android Pay.

And it's my birthday this week, so my wife insisted I get something nice. What can I say?

 

[Elisha]

I just finished ordering a SIM-free 64 GB Space Gray 6s, to be delivered tomorrow. It will replace my perfectly fine Galaxy S4. It will have a smaller screen, worse keyboard, and non-removable battery. And I spent the extra $100 for 64 GB since it doesn't have SD card support. I actually like using my Galaxy S4 with Lollipop (5.0.1) over my wife's iPhone 5 running iOS 9.1. And since I'm recently retired I won't be able to take advantage of the iPhone's superior notifications. Not that I mind, mind you.

So why did I order it? For starters, I'm the only non-iMessage member of my extended family. Add to that the guarantee of OS updates and, more importantly, security updates. Moreover, my bank supports Apple Pay but not Android Pay.

And it's my birthday this week, so my wife insisted I get something nice. What can I say?

Congrats and Happy Birthday!
Nothing superior about iOS notifications though. It's severely crippled but it has come a long way from what it used to be. Android has a superior notification system.

 

[Ulenspiegel]

@aKansasKid: Happy Birthday and enjoy your new iPhone!

 

[apeaceofstrange]

I originally switched when the 6 came out because I didn't want a big phone and every android phone at that time was either too big or had some deal breaker to me. Since then I've moved on to the 6s plus and almost recently switched to the nexus 6p but after using it for a week I couldn't adjust to not having iMessage and reachability and went back to the iPhone.

 

[aKansasKid]

Congrats and Happy Birthday!
Nothing superior about iOS notifications though. It's severely crippled but it has come a long way from what it used to be. Android has a superior notification system.

Thanks for the birthday wishes!

RE: Notifications: As a working stiff in IT, I was constantly getting emails requesting support. On the Galaxy, I could read the email preview on the notification screen for the first one, and only the first one. Once two or more were waiting, the notification would only say you have two, or three, or ... emails waiting - but no previews. There were times when I'd get several emails in the few minutes I might be helping someone out of the office, elsewhere in the large building, and I couldn't just glance at the notification screen to see if any of the waiting emails were urgent. Works great on an iPhone, though.

I even tried a Pebble for notification help, but it's only programmed to show what the Galaxy shows, so it would only count the emails, and not show previews after getting more than one.

 

[Elisha]

Thanks for the birthday wishes!

RE: Notifications: As a working stiff in IT, I was constantly getting emails requesting support. On the Galaxy, I could read the email preview on the notification screen for the first one, and only the first one. Once two or more were waiting, the notification would only say you have two, or three, or ... emails waiting - but no previews. There were times when I'd get several emails in the few minutes I might be helping someone out of the office, elsewhere in the large building, and I couldn't just glance at the notification screen to see if any of the waiting emails were urgent. Works great on an iPhone, though.

I even tried a Pebble for notification help, but it's only programmed to show what the Galaxy shows, so it would only count the emails, and not show previews after getting more than one.

I see. I thought you were referring to the configurable notifications and behaviour and not just emails. I think the stock Gmail and Cloudmagic app lets you configure email preview but I was not much of an email person so I can't confirm.