From Android to iPhone

There is a certian amount of pride found in being platform agnostic. Not being locked in to any one brand or technology allows one to experience a wide variety of challenges, and learn from them. Windows for gaming, Mac for work, Linux for servers. iPad for entertainment, and Android as my daily driver phone. Specifically I have been a fan of the Google Pixel line, and the Nexus line before that. I could get a taste of everything, and depend on nothing. If something changed, I could always be quick to adapt to it. Friends and family were comfortable coming to me for advice on the newest thing in tech, because they knew I would give an honest answer, and I wasn't an Apple Fanboy. I took pride in this for a long time.

Recently that has changed. My Pixel 4 XL battery failed under warranty around the 1 year mark. Customer service was easy, and they sent out a replacement. Still, ever since then I have started to look at all the things that are less than ideal. 4k Video recordings can stutter, apps can sometimes be sluggish, and I find myself rebooting my phone once every day or so to keep it quick and snappy. My faith in Android has been shaken and I am unsure if I want to continue to rely on it as my daily driver. Still, its not terrible, but the minor issues do add up. These are not issues with just this flagship phone. In my experience, these are common with Android in general. I hate to admit that, but it's not as snappy and responsive as it could be. I believe this is just a limitation of the technology being used at this time. Google can work past it, but I want to explore what else is out there.

In my mind, however, switching to iPhone would be admitting defeat. It would mean being locked into a closed platform, paying the Apple tax, and not having the convenience of native Google for everything. On the other hand, I need something that will last the test of time, and be reliable as my daily driver. I don't want to be driving down the highway and have my phone freeze up as I am following my GPS route looking for my exit. (yes this has happened). Ultimately my anti-apple-fanaticism has kept me from changing my ways... Until now.

Enter 2020 and the COVID-19 Pandemic. In an alien world of fully remote and social distancing, I decided to switch from the Google Pixel 4 XL to the iPhone 12 Pro. All my friends and family are already on the iPhone, and I didn't want to be left out of conversations just because it makes their text messages green. 🤮 I knew the app and daily experience would be smooth and reliable, and I have not been disappointed. The camera's on the 12 Pro are better than the Pixel lineup. While the experience has felt just slightly odd for a few days, I am questioning why I never made this jump sooner.

Making phone calls from my laptop, and answering texts in iMessage feels far cleaner than opening messages for android in a chrome window. It has brought me closer to friends and family, and gives me an exciting new outlet of technologies to explore. Ultimately I am very happy with this switch, and the lock-in of the Apple ecosystem has not been an issue as I had once believed. As I am writing this I am surrounded by 3 MacBook Pro's and an iPad. Clearly I was long part of the Apple ecosystem before I switched to iPhone, I just didn't want to admit it.

On that note, I leave you with a happy picture of Chloe, who seems to be just as excited about this new chapter as I am.