It has been almost three years to the day to when I started on my journey to see whether the grass is in fact greener. On the other side, it smells barbecue. So yes, whilst this might be yet another switching video, it is one that I hope will be balanced from someone who has used both iPhone and Android for some years now, and I wanted to explain why I switched to Android from iPhone along with quite a few Points that Ive not seen any other review arrays. Firstly, the good things and, starting with one that I noticed fairly quickly after I started to move all of my subscriptions over, and that was that things are noticeably cheaper on Android than on iPhone. Now here are two that Ive come across in just a few weeks: YouTube premium 15.99 per month when signing up on iPhone but over on Android 11.99 per month odd. But it is not just YouTube three credits with audible, so three books, 23.99 on iPhone only 18 on Android. Whilst some might say that the Android play store is a wild west of third party applications. Apples intention to take a cut of every purchase on an iPhone means that developers will just simply increase their price to make up for the difference now, depending on which side of the fence youll see here. Youll, either think that this is the Apple tax you pay for buying an iPhone, or maybe you think, its worth it for the Safety and Security that Apple gives you with the app restrictions.
Now next up is customization and I love being able to customize everything about my Android experience. Now, if youre, the kind of person that loves to Tinker and customize and change home screens and load icon, packs, then yeah, the customizability of Android is second to none. Having Gesture Shortcuts with Nova Launcher has been so nice, I can have just a few key shortcuts display on the screen, but then, if I want to swipe up or down on certain apps or even certain parts of the screen, it can launch other apps. Now I can understand why many Apple users dont care for this, because they just use the phone as its been designed, but I do also really enjoy being able to customize my phone to this level now. This also includes things like this sidebar, which is unique to Samsungs one UI. I can be inside any app and just swipe across with my thumb, to pull out a list of apps, and not only can I get to them, but if I drag them onto my screen I can run them side by side which has been genuinely useful. A few more times than I thought it would like, when I realized that my workouts didnt carry over from the strong workout app that I use on iPhone. I was able to have both my workout guide and the strong app side by side which made it really easy to get everything set back up again now.
Another big thing that people debate about constantly are the cameras now Ive come to love the images that devices like the Google pixel can take. I think thats, probably my favorite camera of all. So far now I also like the images from the s23 ultra, but the one thing that for me makes the s23 ultra win is having a useful 10 times zoom lens, because having this 10 time, zoom lens means I can zoom in when you know my kids Are running around or playing sports, whereas over on the iPhone their recent innovation has been to add a two time zoom when we we already have a 0.5 a one and a three times already kind of feels pointless to me. Now, yes, its not as smooth as an iPhone. Yes, there is noticeable shutter lag on many phones, Ive tested, including the s23 ultra in some situations, but that 10 times lens can give you such great results. Now, with that said, video is an area that I still wish the s23 ultra and Android in general was Stronger at. It is definitely not as good as the iPhone. I just find. The video quality can be quite inconsistent on Android and at times it can be. Quite choppy and the Audio I I just feel is not up to that of the iPhone standard which, in itself, as an Android User. Now I can say that it is really frustrating because theyve had years to perfect this theyve also partnered, with some of the leading Flagship brands that make DSLR and mirrorless cameras.
So it is really frustrating to see that they are still behind the competition, and then we have the messaging blue bubbles versus green bubbles, which side are you on and from my experience of making these videos for the last three years or so this issue at a Very high level just comes down to where youre located, if youre in the US, for example, where iMessage is much more dominant, then its more of an issue but outside of the US, and certainly here in the UK, most people have already switched to other messaging services. Like WhatsApp Facebook, Messenger even telegram signal, so theres, no real reason to still be using SMS or even iMessage and Since switching to Android, my SMS messages have been exclusively used for authentication codes to log into you know various websites when Im buying things – and I know We have the whole RCS messaging thing here on Android as well, but honestly, at least here in the UK, nobody uses SMS anymore everyones already moved to the other platform, so it is either using iMessage or perhaps a myriad of the other messaging platforms. Now lets switch things up and talk cars. Now now we have a couple of cars in the household, one that supports Android, auto and apple carplay and one very expensive, very technologically advanced car. That does not, but one thing Ive come to love about my Tesla, and I guess Android in general is that I can download an app to my Android phone, which tricks the car into thinking its connected to Android auto, and then I can just fire up a Web browser and then access Android, auto in my car, that doesnt support Android auto now its not the best experience its pretty slow and a bit clunky, but it does work, and I couldnt do this on an iPhone without buying a separate device that does all of The clever stuff, so now at least I can experience Android auto on both of my cars and its a pretty similar experience to Apples own carplay.
So that has been the good. But what about the bad of switching to the s23 ultra and Android in general? So far, well, one frustration that I keep on. Having now has been Google or Samsung pay. Now I dont actually carry around a wallet with me anymore. I havent done it for years, because Apple pay has replaced everything. I know I can tap my watch on my phone basically anywhere and it works. Samsung pay and Google pay not so much. In fact here in the UK Barclays Bank, which is like one of the UKs biggest banks, doesnt even support Google or Samsung pay. They literally told me that theyre just starting to roll it out now, but the reliability. Now I saw this recently on a friends Channel. Oh no could not complete transaction try again and he was having the exact same issue as Ive been having. Sometimes Google pay just doesnt work in one situation. Google pay will tell you that its not worked so Ill go to use a different card to pay again only to find that the first transaction did go through and now I pay twice. There is no reason I can find for this. Even after contacting my bank, sometimes theyll go through. Sometimes they wont now. I also use my phone to get into the car park at my local gym and into the gym itself on the s23 ultra, at least it doesnt, let me into the car park and when I try and scan it in at the gym itself, its super slow, Like sometimes its a second or two, sometimes five seconds or more just waving, my Throne around and trying to get it to trigger again on the iPhone, I literally just tap it and it works instantly over to the watch now and the Android watch.
Experience is not as good as the Apple watch Im sorry. I have really really tried here now. Ive been switching between both the Apple watch, the pixel watch and the Galaxy watch, but the whole interface on these Android watches just seems to suffer from issues. It lags it stutters, animations, arent smooth. I just really hope that Samsung can solve this in their Galaxy watch 6 and Galaxy watch 6 Pro that theyre about to release in the same way that the you know, huge performance jump from the s22 to the s23 was but theres. Also simple things like when finishing a workout on the Galaxy watch, you have to swipe exactly horizontally to access the menus either side. Otherwise it doesnt work and when you combine this type of kind of interface with water, when youre swimming, it is even more difficult to use it. If you use a ring alarm system or have any ring cameras around the house, you cant snooze notifications directly on the watch. You have to pull out your phone to do that which is kind of annoying for that to happen, whilst on a call or in a meeting – and you just want to you – know quickly – snooze for an hour instead of muting everything. Now, when I mute my phone, my watch doesnt mute, which means I end up in plenty of weird situations where my watch will go off, but my phone wont and vice versa, and basically I just generally forget you know what is set to what so I end Up missing messages from well, mostly my wife whos, never best pleased again, I dont understand why you cant sync the mute status from the phone to the watch.
It does look like you can or used to be able to do this, but the options just arent there on the s23 ultra, but with all the bad stuff Ive said about the watch. The battery life is crazy. We are on day two and 54, and Ive slept with it last night, use it for a full day yesterday with workouts. It is crazy, considering this watch can be had for less than an Apple Watch and a third of the price of an Apple Watch. Ultra battery life is just as good now I can easily go three days without charging. The Galaxy watch 5 Pro and I do that regularly, but there are things that Ive missed like things that now Ive switched. I keep thinking about and wondering was I better off now. Most of them are actually really minor things. I havent really noticed as being a thing before, but now being you know, out of the Apple ecosystem other than my Mac and my iPad, its reminded me of how polished Apples integration really is like when opening a PDF on well any device it remembers, which page I was last reading so open a PDF on my Mac and then open it on my iPhone, and it will open up at the same page that I left it on my Mac on Android. It just opens up the first page, every single time now, Ive also missed the focus states which sync across everything like when I walk into the gym.
It changes my watch face to one with all my workout complications, my phone mutes, all of my notifications and this links across to my iPad and my MacBook too, and when using my Mac, I have a focus State set when I open a specific app. So when Im recording my videos, then it mutes all of my Apple devices around me and mostly because of some, I guess more. Recent decisions I made around my house Ive, also missed, being able to use my Watch and my phone to control the Apple TV. We have in the living room like adding family photos to the TV wallpaper album we created and features of course, such as airdrop and continuity to seamlessly copy files around between like family and friends. It has definitely made me appreciate the small details in the Apple ecosystem. An ecosystem that used to make me shudder with Dread because you know I was locked in, but actually theyve done, something pretty impressive – that nobody else is yet to match. But with all of that said, although I dont think the grass is any greener on either side of the fence, Im still enjoying the Android experience its just different.xiGUrv2iGks
