I tweeted the other week about picking up an iPhone to attempt to switch over from Android phones from the past 12 years or so (more than half of which have all been Google devices - both Nexus and Pixels).
I've written quite a bit about my enjoyment of using the Pixel series of phones from Google, I had really enjoyed the hardware for all of them, and up until recently the software experience was usable. However over the past few months with my Pixel 6 Pro, the software experience (as well as some hardware features) has been starting to get on my nerves.
Most of my issues boil down to the common ones that others are also having with the phones:
- Camera quality has been hit or miss
- Specifically the front facing camera for almost any shot
- All of my low-light / night time pictures have been either far too grainy, or over processed
- The fingerprint sensor under the display has been flaky as well
- Various software issues
- Both via the OS itself, as well as many UI/UX bugs in Google's own apps (YouTube Music had recieved an update that added a ton of padding around all elements of the UI, making it seem like it was scaling the app up to a larger display)
- Slow system updates (the December patch was delayed and then cancelled in favor of a January patch)
So instead of switching to another Android phone, I decided to try out an iPhone. I ordered the iPhone 13 Pro Max (in the blue variant), and surprisingly was able to get it delivered the same day!
I've had the phone for less than a week at this point, however I've already found some things I like and some that I miss from my Pixel. I also have a few things on my todo list to figure out how I can replicate some of my previous workflows too!
I'll keep this short for now, but here is a brief review only about 4 days in:
Things I Like:
- iMessage
- Everyone has been hyping this up anytime I talk to someone that uses Apple devices, and I get it now
- Apps
- Both in terms of apps that are only on iOS (shoutout to Collage 🙂), as well as features within applications (e.g. Twitter)
Things I Miss:
- Notifications
- Notifications on Android are leagues ahead of them on iOS, quick actions and even quick replies to conversations are amazing!
- Split personal and work accounts
- Being able to easily jump between separate apps for personal email and work email, or even being able to turn off work apps is something that I don't see nearly enough people talk about when comparing iOS with Android!
Things I Need to Solve:
- Obsidian sync
- I've been using Dropbox to sync all my obsidian notes across my personal laptop, work laptop, phone, and tablet. Now I'll need to move to iCloud storage to sync I think 🤔