Why I switched from Android To IOS

I’ve been a happy T-Mobile customer for over 6 years. While your mileage may vary, I’ve only had 2 issues with data dead zones in the last 6 years. I’m sure there are plenty of other reviews out there, which go into each detail of the phone but I wanted to provide a more realistic take from an average user and why I’m dumping Android.  You might get some insight or you might not, but the ultimate goal is for me to explain my purchase and why Android didn’t suit my needs and frankly I was sick and tired of waiting for a common sense all around good phone from Google.

I’ve had every model of Iphone from the first generation (which is my 7 year old daughters main phone) to the 3g and to the 4. I skipped the “s” generations of Iphones but have had every other model since then.  The first generation and 3g Iphones were jailbroken on T-Mobile while the 4 was provided by my old employer on Verizon. I’ve also owned the G1, myTouch 4g, Galaxy Nexus and the Samsung Galaxy S3 on T-mobile as well. So I’ve pretty much switched between Android and IOS the whole 6 years on T-Mobile.

At the beginning, I loved to tweak and jailbreak my phones. Within the last year or so I’ve been doing some soul searching and have been cutting back on “tech overload” while focusing on aspects of my life that actually improve my life vs. tinkering and messing around. My last experiment was to be completely unplugged from the internet for a day, which went well (but I’ll save that for a later post). At the beginning of my smartphone experience it was all about features and apps. The more features and apps the better, but as time goes on I’ve realized that I only use a handful of apps and that by comparison my usage is average.

On an everyday basis; I use email, read rss feeds from tech sites, send IM’s to my wife,  post to Google+, listen to podcasts, listen to music, take photos and post to Facebook once in awhile and an occasional game. For a tech nerd that’s average use, for the everyday joe I might seem like a power user. So depending upon which camp you lie in your perception of me may vary.

Now that we got my use and experience out of the way, I want to briefly explain why I’ve switched completely to IOS. I’m sick and fucking tired of not having an all around good Nexus/Android experience. The galaxy nexus had a shitty camera and the speaker was a joke. The screen sucked and the back panel was loose. Android updates brought in more bugs than fixes like the new camera that seemed like a good idea but only slowed down my camera and killed my battery life. Google should have stuck with the no shutter lag feature vs. introducing a crappy camera experience. Android is like old school windows it slows down over time. You have to reset the damn thing every couple of months to keep the speed. I’ve always had issues with a millisecond lag from the point of launching any browser and getting the address bar/search bar to recognize my input. GPS lock for maps has always taken forever if it works and not to mention I don’t trust the app store. Call me loony but I hear about Android virus’s often. I want my phone to work without hassle. You might want to say, “well the Nexus 4 is a great phone” and my answer would be that I don’t trust LG to build a phone with a solid glass back. I trust Apple because quality is within their DNA but LG no way. Not to mention the lack of LTE didn’t future proof my phone.

I spend allot of money on smartphones and I wanted to invest in something that I could hold onto for 2 years. While IOS may seem stale to the tech enthusiasts to the everyday joe it “just works”. I want “just works” over the latest and greatest feature. I have to admit that I fell victim to the “I need the latest and greatest syndrome” when it came to smartphone features but one thing of importance that I’ve found through this whole soul searching quest is that I didn’t need them. Nor did Google Now do anything special for me. Or how I never use Google drive or Google keep. I think my problem in the past was wanting a new feature just because it was new. It didn’t matter if that feature was useful or not.

When I got the Iphone 5 on T-Mobile the first thing that I noticed was how beautiful it was. The second thing was how light it was and the third was how responsive it was. I honestly believe this is the best phone that Apple has every made and honestly the best phone that I”ve ever used. For once, I’m satisfied with my smartphone purchase and even though I kinda cheated with having jailbroken Iphones on T-Mobile, having a fully compatible Iphone is the device I’ve dreamed of for years. My little quirks are gone and I feel as though I’m not compromising anything to get an experience of “it just works”.

 

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Android Geek Google mytouch 4g Personal podcasts reflection