The Samsung Galaxy Ace was my first smartphone, and I have been loyal to Android ever since. Nonetheless, I might be mendacity if I mentioned I have not glanced over to the opposite aspect often, questioning if I may change from Android to iOS. I made a decision to enterprise out of my consolation zone and begin 2024 with an iPhone in my pocket. The cameras are improbable, the audio system are loud, and iOS would not draw back from showcasing its easy animations. But, I miss a couple of issues from my time utilizing Android telephones.
5
A greater typing expertise
How has Apple not figured this out but?
After organising my new iPhone with apps I take advantage of and a cleverly positioned wallpaper to cover the Dynamic Island, I bumped into my first and largest annoyance: the keyboard. The autocorrect is atrocious, there is not a fast technique to enter numbers, and the idea of a clipboard supervisor is overseas to iOS.
There’s additionally a noticeable lag with my iPhone’s keyboard. Regardless of scouring by way of a number of Reddit posts, I discovered that switching to a third-party providing was the one technique to have a usable typing expertise. SwiftKey is my keyboard of alternative. There aren’t many choices on the App Retailer, particularly with Gboard lacking half the options on iOS in comparison with its Android counterpart.
SwiftKey can add a sticky quantity row on the high, contains a clipboard, and offers stronger haptic suggestions when typing. A built-in GIF picker, a technique to generate AI photos utilizing the SwiftKey keyboard, and different additions add worth to the typing expertise or keep out of your approach if you happen to desire to not use them. I often take care of the dreadful default keyboard when typing in passwords for authentication, however the shift to SwiftKey has stored me from switching again to Android.
4
Sooner charging
0 to 100 in half-hour is now only a reminiscence
I’ve used OnePlus smartphones since 2015. Whereas OxygenOS has matured over time into one thing completely different, OnePlus smartphones have all the time been identified for his or her snappiness and quick charging. Dropping from a charging velocity of 65W to lower than 30W on my iPhone appeared like a downgrade on paper, but it surely rapidly boosts previous the primary 70%.
Nonetheless, I needed to recalibrate my charging habits. A few of the fastest-charging Android telephones take beneath half-hour to completely high up. I leveraged this performance to my benefit for years and charged my telephones a couple of minutes earlier than my day started. The iPhone wants a minimum of an hour to cost it with sufficient energy to final a full day. I’ve largely switched to charging my iPhone wirelessly by way of the night time and waking up with a full battery. Nonetheless, I miss the comfort of five-minute fast costs from my OnePlus cellphone.
Associated
OnePlus deserves extra credit score for popularizing fast-charging on telephones
When you go quick, there isn’t any going again
3
The snappier really feel of Android
The iPhone loves taking its personal time
Each overview of the iPhone talks about iOS’s easy and detailed animations. The best way your apps and widgets crawl into place whenever you unlock your cellphone seems magical. Nevertheless, this rapidly will get previous whenever you need to accomplish a job however should sit by way of convoluted transitions. That is why I velocity up animations on Android. Dropping the length of all transitions to 0.5x makes interacting with the UI snappier. You’ll be able to flip off system animations on iOS by navigating to Settings > Accessibility > Movement and turning on the Scale back Movement toggle. Nevertheless, the result is sluggish.
Android and iOS have inertial scrolling, which supplies a easy deceleration feeling whenever you let go of your finger. Nevertheless, the iPhone scrolls slower than Android telephones, which I needed to get used to. I respect the common back-to-top shortcut on iOS, which could be triggered by tapping the highest of the display.
There have additionally been studies of iOS 18 throttling the refresh fee of the Professional fashions to 80Hz. It did not take a side-by-side comparability to note this. My iPhone is stricter relating to sustaining the sleek 120Hz refresh fee throughout all apps. That is seemingly executed to advertise higher battery life, however I want iOS had a Drive Peak Refresh Fee toggle, like some customized ROMs on Android, which ends up in one other facet I miss essentially the most about Android.
2
The power to put in customized ROMs
Power of a OnePlus with the center of a Pixel
This one has much less to complain about iOS however shines a light-weight on how open and customizable Android is. Do you not like how the latest updates to OxygenOS ruined the inventory expertise? Flash a customized ROM that borrows the feel and appear of a Google Pixel. That is what I did when OnePlus dropped official software program help for my cellphone. Now, I’ve the flagship-grade internals of a OnePlus gadget however with the fluidity and clear expertise of a Pixel.
Customized ROM growth has slowed down over time. Producers now ship extra years of software program updates, leaving little purpose to swap the OS in your cellphone.
5 methods Google nerfed customized ROMs and rooting
Rooting is never value it these days, and there are some main drawbacks
1
The little issues
Extra sacrifices than I might hoped to make
I put an excessive amount of religion within the iOS 18 replace, which was purported to be a UI overhaul. I really like you can place icons wherever on the house display with out artistic workarounds, broaden their dimension, and select a distinct tint. In need of customizing the Management Heart, my iPhone seems to be fairly vanilla.
As an alternative, my complaints revolve round how the iOS working system handles actions. There is not a common again gesture, and swiping in from the left or proper would not all the time work. Generally, it’s important to swipe all the way down to exit a dialog field in an app or faucet the tiny X icon within the upper-left or upper-right nook of the display. This unpredictability within the UI is irritating.
I will not contact on notification administration. Even die-hard iOS customers acknowledge how horrible it’s. A much bigger annoyance for me is how iOS pauses background actions for apps that ought to be capable to bypass this restriction. I’ve seen the “Story hasn’t completed importing” notification from Instagram numerous instances, which solely resumes after I open the app.
If the iOS 18 Images app redesign wasn’t controversial sufficient, the way in which your pictures and movies go right into a single Recents folder in your gallery is annoying. I’ve taken as a right how Android neatly organizes the media I obtain on my cellphone from completely different sources. Images I save from Instagram seem in their very own folder, and pictures I obtain from Chrome populate in one other listing. Whereas the Images app on iOS makes it straightforward to seek for a picture utilizing key phrases, the issue is extra pronounced in third-party apps and their media pickers that present your pictures and movies as one massive, cluttered mess.
Will I be switching again to Android?
With a MacBook changing my laptop and a pair of AirPods Professional in my pocket, I am invested too deeply within the Apple ecosystem to return to utilizing Android. I additionally respect conveniences like AirDrop and Discover My. Nevertheless, when my iPhone requires two costs a day and I lose one among my earphones, I will be reluctant to hit the Apple Retailer once more as a result of Android 15 stands out over iOS 18.