Why I Switched from Android to iOS

I finally bought my first iPhone.

For the last five years, I’ve been continuously tempted to ditch my Android phone in favour of Apple. But the higher prices and smaller screens have always put me off. For the longest time, I couldn’t justify the purchase.

But then it happened. The apps on my phone kept crashing, and it started to slow to a crawl. So when Apple unveiled the iPhone 6 last year, it really got my attention. They finally made a big screen phone that was still easy to use with one hand; a stark contrast to the gigantic Android phones that have gotten out-of-hand (pun intended).

Also, iOS was finally opening up. Apps now have more freedom to interact with one another and users could finally use custom keyboards.

So when Apple announced the iPhone 6S, I made the switch.

Samsung – The Best and Worst Thing to Happen to Android

During my five-year dalliance with Android, I’ve owned phones by HTC and Sony. But Samsung was unmistakably my manufacturer of choice. I’ve owned the Samsung Galaxy S2, S4 and S5.

While the S2 was a great phone for its time, the S5 completely destroyed my faith in Android with its infuriating list of contradictions.

It has a gorgeous screen, but it is a bit too big to use one-handed, and its auto-brightness is a complete, and utter failure.

It has more RAM and processing cores than the comparable iPhone, but it is slow and sluggish, with a slow user experience that is further hindered by apps crashing or force quitting all the time.

It has a brilliant camera that can take great photos, but because the phone is so slow and sluggish, and by the time the app loads, you may have missed the shot.

It has a heartbeat monitor, but that app keeps crashing too.

It has a waterproof design, but the charging flap is a pain to deal with, and the constant reminder to close the flap is irritating.

It has a fingerprint sensor, but it is neither quick nor accurate and it requires an obscene stroking motion to coax it to unlock itself.

It has expandable storage, but not all Android apps can be installed to the microsd card.

The only added Samsung features I appreciated were the IR blaster and the removable battery. Every other brilliant part of the phone was hamstrung by a significant annoyance.

What Other Reviewers Don’t Tell You About Android

As a long-term Android user, I’ve noticed that there is one important thing that reviewers always omit – how well does the phone age?

And by ‘age’ I’m not referring to decades, but two years, the typical duration for a cell phone contract.

Every generation of top-tiered (or even mid-range) Android phones always starts out fast and fluid. But towards the end of the two years, they tend to run slower than an obese tortoise with a sprained ankle.

Better processors, more RAM and newer versions of Android never seem to solve the problem. Instead of hoping, once again, that ‘this time they will get it right’, I am breaking the cycle, and abandoning Android.

The iPhone 6S Quick Review  – A Stellar Experience

In comparison, the iPhone 6S is the best smartphone I’ve ever used.

The hardware is beautifully- designed, and well-built, and the software is fast, consistent and quite reliable.

‘Quite’, because I’ve experienced rare moments when the phone restarts after launching some apps, and minor bugs where the universal search did not display contact information.

To be fair, these issues were promptly fixed by Apple with an update to iOS 9.1.

Other minor points of annoyance are how some apps haven’t been updated with iOS 9 in mind, and how iOS’s notification centre lacks a ‘Clear All” button.

But these are minor issues that I’m willing to overlook, because the iPhone 6S provides a stellar experience .

The ability to back-up and restore my phone is a useful feature that makes it easy to upgrade my phone. The finger print sensor has changed the way I interact with my phone, the universal search is fast, fluid and awesome. ‘Reachability’ also makes one-handed usage easier.

There is very little ‘feature-creep’ in the iPhone. Everything is carefully designed and considered.

While I could only describe the best Android phones as being “Excellent” or “Very Good”, I love my iPhone. As cliché as it sounds, it just works, and it works extremely well.

Gestalt Theory  

“The original famous phrase of Gestalt psychologist Kurt Koffka, “The whole is other than the sum of the parts” is often incorrectly translated [1] as “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts” and thus used when explaining gestalt theory, and further incorrectly applied to systems theory.[2] Koffka did not like the translation. He firmly corrected students who replaced “other” by “greater”. “This is not a principle of addition” he said.[3] The whole has an independent existence.” – Wikipedia.

I don’t care if I am misquoting Koffka, the iPhone 6S is greater than the sum of its parts.

Android fanboys will run through a list of specifications to point out how their favourite flagship is superior from a technical perspective. But it doesn’t matter how good the camera is if the app is slow to load. It doesn’t matter if it has expandable storage, if it doesn’t allow you to install more apps. And it doesn’t matter if the processor has more cores if the phone lags all the time.

My three-year old iPad was faster, and more reliable than my one-year-old Samsung Galaxy S5, despite the seemingly huge disparity in specifications.

Apparently, I’m not the only one leaving Android for Apple. In a 4Q2015 earnings call, Tim Cook announced that 30% of all iPhone 6S/Plus buyers were former Android owners.

The one month I’ve spend with the iPhone 6S has been the best one month I’ve spent with any new phone, and I am glad I made the switch.

Belkin lightning cable available here.
iPhone 6S case available here.