Switching from iPhone to Android: The Real Ecosystem Friction Nobody Talks About

Even though we stopped using the whole like lifelong iPhone user switches to titles 2 years ago, I still seem to live rentree in people’s heads like uh Rob Clayy. And you might be surprised to hear that I actually agree. I am also tired of this along with so many other clickbaity formats on YouTube which are unfortunately just the way the world works for well lots of social media platforms today not specifically YouTube. So in this article I wanted to do something a little different. I am challenging two of my lifelong iPhone user friends here to switch from iPhone to an Android phone of their choosing for the next few weeks. I am also going to explain why most tech YouTubers keep switching from iPhone to Android and then back again. And then we get to see what problems or maybe even what revelations my team had with their own switching experiments.

The Ground Rules and the Android Lineup

Okay. The rules are simple. We are in a fairly fortunate position here where we happen to have a variety of Android phones available to choose from. anywhere from flips to folds to the big two, Google and Samsung, but also through to some of the best alternative options. Phones that lead with fun and interesting designs first to other phones that are stuffing all of the latest technologies into some pretty compelling flagship killers. They can pick any phone and at the end of this challenge, they will have the option to keep the phone if they so choose to.

Participant 1: Matt’s Choice (iPhone 17 Pro User)

Okay, so Matt is the first victim and here we have in front of us a selection of a few different Android phones, lots of Samsung phones, a couple of others kind of out there for some variation as well. You are coming from an iPhone 17 Pro. So, one of us is coming from a very latest gen and one of us is coming from a an older generation phone.

So, in terms of the Android devices we have in front of us, we have a bit of a selection. We have the latest flagships from Samsung, the S26 Ultra. We also have the Zed Flip 7 and the Zed Fold 7. We also have the Z Flip 7 FE, but it is like half the price of the Z Flip. It kind of makes no sense in why we’ choose that over the actual kind of main Flip 7. We do have the S25 Edge, which is like the iPhone Air, I guess, is the easiest way to describe that one. We also, for whatever reason, have a budget option as far as Samsung goes, which is the A56 at 5G model. So, this is their budget range of Android phone.

And then in terms of like the non- Samsung stuff, we have a couple of nothing phones just cuz they have like their unique design language which is pretty unique, looks very cool. This one very much taking inspiration from the iPhones plateau of the iPhone 17. So that might be of interest. And then we also have two of or one of maybe the best phones of the year as far as MKBHD and Mr. Who’s the Boss were declaring it is the OnePlus 15 which is a very very heavy-hitting phone as far as all specs are concerned. And then the Oppo Find X9 Pro, which is essentially the same as the OnePlus, but with the Hasselblad partnership and a marginally bigger battery life.

So, I don’t know if you want to have a bit of a look around and see what your thoughts are. Are you drawn to any one particular phone to start off with?

Narrowing Down the Options

So, I don’t think I’ve ever owned an iPhone that feels slow. That would instantly put out the Samsung, the the budget Samsung, which we are talking about, an older generation Exynos 1580. So, I would say that instantly puts that one out. So definitely something that I’ve although we’ spoken about before, I love the design of the Nothing Phones. Being an iPhone user since the very first iPhone, there’s not been much to entice me towards other manufacturers. I’ve always kind of felt that Samsung has maybe copied as harsh, but certainly from a from an iPhone users perspective, it just seems like, oh, okay, how what is Samsung taking from the iPhone this year to copy a design language? That’s probably very wrong.

I think Samsung I mean they’ve had their like the format of their S26 Ultra hasn’t changed similarly to the iPhone’s format hasn’t changed. So I mean they haven’t copied the whole like the plateau thing have they? But they’ve kind of found their format and stuck to it. People are getting bored of the Ultra’s design. They seem to just again change the smallest things every year. But yeah, Nothing’s definitely got a interesting design in terms of how that compares to your phone. Let’s go with the Pro, which is this one to start off with.

You get no wireless charging with either of the Nothing phones. So that is definitely something you sacrifice. There’s no wireless charging. Therefore, no magnets to, you know, Mag Safe batteries.

And I do use wireless charging at the bedstand. It’s stuck onto a Mag Safe charger at the side of the bed. Not that wired charges is a problem, but this is the whole thing. This is one of the issues that a lot of iPhone users have is MagSafe accessories. I’ve got a MagSafe charger in my car again at my desk, at my bedside table. So, in far as Mag Safe chargers or phones with Mag Safe charging, none of them have the Chi 2.2 magnets built in. However, both the Oppo and OnePlus uh sell OEM cases that have magnets built in so you can carry on using them. Same with the S26 Ultra, thanks to So, they have their own cases, but also a case sponsor for this article, Mag has a case now for the S26 Ultra and the regular S26.

Sizing Up the Galaxy S26 Ultra vs. iPhone

I’m also going to throw this in here, but if you, you know, like the S26 Ultra, but you don’t like how big it is, then we can also go and get the regular size S26 or S26 Plus. It’s a very minor size difference between.

Now, that is something I might be interested in because I remember the iPhone 5 was a very good size. And I’d also had an iPhone 12 mini, which I thought was just the best size.

How does the S26 Ultra compares to your iPhone?

Well, let me cuz you you’re on the regular size iPhone as well. You’re not on the Pro Max, are you?

That’s right. Yeah. So, regular size Pro, which I don’t know what size screen that is.

iPhone 17 Pro is a 6.3 in display. The S26 Ultra is a 6.9 in display.

So, more close to the what’s going to be the iPhone 17 Pro Max. I would say it’s definitely a lot bigger to hold in your hand.

It feels much bigger.

That’s what she said.

Yeah. And in terms of that reachability, if I’m using a phone right-handed, I’m never reaching that top corner. So, you could get the regular sized, which brings it a lot further down, but you do lose, I believe it’s one of the cameras, and we’re going to then exclude the nothing phones that you like the design of. I don’t want to put it in your mouth and say like these will be slow, but I feel like if you want to if you want to give your first go at Android, I feel like it has to be like you’re coming from a flagship iPhone, you have to go for at least a flagship chipset. Yeah. And these are just like slightly older, like 1 to 2y old chipset. So, let’s let’s get rid of them then. Okay. Out of the running.

Ecosystem vs. Pure Hardware Specs

It’s like is there anything drawing you towards Samsung devices specifically or are you more drawn towards the Chinese but a lot better specs on these devices?

The cameras and batteries on the OPPO and OnePlus is very interesting.

So, from my experience with the OnePlus, they used to have a Hasselblad partnership and I used to um post photos on my Instagram and people used to say, “Huh, what camera are you using that looks like a DSLR?” Since they’ve lost the partnership and this no longer has Hasselblad on it, I don’t get those comments anymore. The OnePlus cameras aren’t as strong this year.

Okay. Yeah, let’s roll out the OnePlus then.

That one then. And then so that leaves us with the Oppo versus the Samsung phones is again it’s the ecosystem. So with Galaxy devices, you have all the tie-ins with like Samsung smart things, Galaxy watches, Galaxy earbuds, you know, tablets. They’ve got their whole ecosystem. Whereas currently, as far as like the experience of like the Western world, we’ve only just really got the phones. However, being Android, you can basically use whatever you want cuz Apple you’re basically kind of tied into using like the Apple devices, whereas I know you can connect like third party, you know, Bluetooth headphones and things. But I would say if you want the ecosystem experience for your first time experience, go with Galaxy. If you want just the phone and the phone like as far as like beasting the hardware specs, then it will be the Oppo.

So on form factor, although I’m intrigued by these, I’m not sure I’m that interested in a folding phone. I have an iPad. I have a laptop. I don’t have any situations where I’m like, I need a a big screen right now.

Even though it’s the same size as a regular phone, and then you can unfold it and then suddenly tablet or at least bigger screen.

I’m almost tempted to try to see how often I actually open it. The Edgeh I’m very tempted by it, but I think I want to give a like for like experience with like the free camera system on the iPhone. So, I think I’ll take the Edge out. And then there were three. And then there were three. So you’ve got three devices, but don’t forget this S26 Ultra is kind of three devices. So you could also have the regular S26, the S26 Plus, or the S26 Ultra. Now the S26, S26 Pluses don’t have the flagship Snapdragon chip in them. For some silly reason, they’re running the Samsung XOS chip. Tempted by the OPPO just to just to try it, but like you say, it doesn’t have like any of the ecosystem integration that I would get from Samsung. And maybe I try the fold.

Okay. Would you like to lock in your answer? Um, do you want to maybe pick it up and have a play with it? And yeah, let me how it feels in the hands. So, I mean, it’s definitely very usable folded, right? It’s definitely like a a phone like experience when folded up. It is another 6 months time we’ll have the uh the ZFold uh 8. This is using last year’s uh Snapdragon 8 Elite I think it was. Yeah, just the last last year’s version of the flagship chip. So, it does have a flagship chip.

I feel like it’s still just a bit gimmicky. I’m not sure what’s really appealing to having the larger screen, which makes me think I should probably choose just the latest and greatest as I have done with iPhone every time I’ve purchased.

Fair. So, does that mean Galaxy S26 Ultra?

Yeah, I think I should uh go with the Ultra. Oh, it’s got a pen.

There is the S Pen, which I’m not sure how many people actually use the S Pen. Comment down below if you use it. So, we’re going with the S26 Ultra.

S26 Ultra, I think. Yeah. sold to the highest bidder of the only bidder, the S26 Ultra.

Participant 2: Ben’s Choice (iPhone 13 User)

So, my second victim is Ben. And uh Ben, you are slightly different because you have an iPhone 13. Not the mini, but the 13, the regular 13. Any of these phones with the exception of one maybe could be considered as an upgrade or actually no, all of them would be considered as an upgrade for you.

Instantly, I’m drawn to like this one and these two. Okay. uh based on appearance. I don’t really like the the blue color on here, but I’m guessing you can get covers and stuff.

Other colors are available and we can get covers and cases. So interesting. Do you pick your phone based on the color?

The Reality of Tech Reviewers and the Two-Phone Dilemma

Now, whilst the guys are getting on with their own challenges, the question and I guess legitimacy of the whole like switching to Android content on social media is a really interesting one. So, 6 years ago, I made my first lifelong iPhone user switches to article. I think it was like the the Pixel 4a. And that was a title that was inspired by this insider tech article from May 2019. And since then I like many others have rinsed and repeated until death because well as a content creator you are told to look at the data. When you find something that performs well or you do more of it but being a content creator whose life revolves around reviewing all technology it inherently meant that well as a tech creator I quickly realized that I couldn’t completely ditch one or another.

So I like many others became one of those guys who carries around two phones. So whether I’m comparing say you know the Apple TV and Google TV, I have my toes dipped in both sides of the ocean so I can review these devices as a fan of both platforms and then make my content as unbiased as possible whilst also still being hyper aware that everyone has a bias even when they’re trying their hardest not to be biased.

The Apple device is easy. They release one set of phones every year so it’s just an easy decision to just pick the best one they make. Now, the Android device is where the challenge comes in because as much as I love Android and would easily daily drive one and only one. Well, we’ve just been through a mere few weeks of the year in which Samsung launched the S26 lineup, Xiaomi the 17 and 17 Ultra, the Honor Magic V6, the Nothing 4a and 4a Pro, the Pixel 10a, the Vivo X300, the Ultra, the Oppo Find X10 Ultra, the OnePlus 15T, and that’s not even all of them.

Ecosystem Friction and Streamlining

And between all of my Bluetooth devices, to things like my authenticators to reauthorizing my business and personal banking apps, just the list of things that I need to do to fully switch to a new phone is just ginormous. Now, in some situations, like with OnePlus, whose watch hardware I absolutely love, but their software here isn’t compatible with my health insurance system, which means that if I don’t daily an Apple or Samsung Pixel or Garmin watch, then my health premiums increase every year and I don’t get any of the benefits of the insurance. So, instead now, I stick with one device that at most changes once per year, and then one fun device that changes fairly constantly.

It’s why I haven’t properly reviewed an iPhone in years either, because well, to me, it’s still just same old same old story every single year. But this is why most tech reviewers all fall into this same trap. I guess if you call it that, we like Android. And I say this in all my articles, even if you get fed up of hearing it, it is a phone. Who cares what phone you use? Use whatever phone you want. Like, who cares if you’re, you know, favorite creator goes back to another phone after one they’ve just reviewed? Because as a content creator, as a as a reviewer whose job it is to try out a gazillion different products every single year, we don’t always use the one and only best product, we do it to streamline.

Uh, for example, between going to my daughter’s show this afternoon, uh, swimming lessons with my kids, and actually spending time with my family and my friends, having one phone that is just a always on, always there device, and then another one that is fun and actually interesting and different to use and changes from time to time. That is why I do this because it is fun. Now, that’s not to say that people should or shouldn’t title their articles in, you know, whatever way they feel like they need to to get their articles seen by the people or the algorithm. I hate clickbait as much as you do. But all we can do is scroll on and go and read the stuff that we do want to read. And honestly, if that isn’t one of my articles because you don’t agree with the the way we package our articles or maybe the title or the thumbnail rubbed you up the wrong way, then that is totally your choice. But that is why people do it because it works consistently because we want to stay balanced in our reviews and our comparisons and because not all of us have all the time in the world to be constantly switching.

Two Weeks Later: The Android Experience Unfiltered

Uh speaking of which, let’s just catch up with our lifelong iPhone users and see how their switching experiment is going.

How did the initial like setup and migration and like migrating everything over from iPhone, how did that all go? How easy was it for you?

The Pain of Data Migration and Bloatware

The migration was probably like the hardest bit, the least enjoyable bit. At first, I moved everything over from my iPhone to the OPPO with like you plug it in and then it can like move all your apps over and stuff. I did that on my first try and then I realized, oh my god, there’s so much crap that I don’t use anymore. I’m going to just like do a fresh install. So, I had like loads of stuff come up like Teeu and there was like a bunch of other random apps like gamer gamer apps, all this like random crap that I don’t need.

That is one of the problems with even like flagship Android phones to be honest. There are a lot of bloware apps I guess you can call them. Yeah. Like T-Mu and stuff. Even on the the flagship S26 series there were things like like LinkedIn was pre-installed. Copilot AI. One drive is installed but then one drive is used to like back up things too. So I guess could you not say the same thing about Apple with like putting was it pages and keynote and other things on iPhones technically like even if you don’t like I’ve not used keynote on an iPhone or pages or anything for a very long time I think but the initial like transfer stuff did work at least it worked it worked all my pictures and everything went just fine but then I decided I’m going to do a fresh install.

Matt’s Switch: From Galaxy S26 Ultra to the Nothing Phone 4a Pro

So your experience was very different. you were going from an iPhone 17 Pro to a initially Samsung S26 Ultra. However, I’m using the one and only S26 Ultra that we had and Samsung sent out an S26 base model instead of the Ultra, right?

Yes.

So, you started off with the S26 Ultra. So, should we start from there? Should we talk about the the migration experience?

Yeah. Yeah. So, with the S26, I followed your very helpful article for how to uh to set up at first and did opt to set up from fresh. Nice. Rather than trying any of the migration stuff, just from what I’ve heard of the experience from like installing the migration app, it’s very very flaky. And it was also a good opportunity to just see what’s new in the Android world. Yes. So, on boarding was basically seamless.

An issue I had when going through the setup prompts was I I wanted to set up Google Wallet or Samsung Wallet. I think it was Samsung Sam Samsung Pay on the but that failed for me but I also had a similar issue with Google Wallet. So I don’t know if that’s actually my bank rather than either of the the Android wallet pay.

How far through did you get? Did you just Was it adding the card and it failed at the card?

Yeah, quite literally. Yeah.

Generally speaking, Apple Pay kind of supports everything. either it’s Google or the Samsung wallet side of things. I had an issue maybe a few years ago where the the wallets didn’t support my banking apps or didn’t my my my cards, but more recently those have been fixed. I’m surprised if there are still cards today that don’t work, but it’s interesting to hear that you had obviously had problems with it.

Yeah, and definitely and having used Apple Wallet from day one that was very flaky at first. It would fail and kind of similar to what I had on the Android experience where it would basically just say that it it’s failed. Tough luck. Try again later. Contact your bank.

Yeah. used to be like that for Apple Wallet, but now it’s like at least when you’re doing it on Apple Wallet, you get the prompt to like, oh, just authorize on the on the uh banking app and it instant click to the banking app, which is cool. And I didn’t have the similar kind of experience of Android.

Ben’s Take on the Oppo: Cameras and Battery Life

The camera definitely is like my favorite thing about this phone. Nice. Being able to shoot in like log format has been so cool. Having it in your pocket and just being able to like whip it out when you’re on a walk or something, it’s like really nice footage. I’m using like the pro video mode so you have like complete control over like basically a camera in your pocket. It’s crazy. And also the photos as well like the hassle is it Hasselblad Hasselblad. Yeah. Such a good partnership on that phone. Yeah, they look really good.

And also yeah the screen is like another massive thing that I’m a fan of.

Why with the screen? Is it just cuz it’s bigger than your iPhone? Is it just brighter colors refresh rate? Have you noticed that it’s high refresh rate?

I didn’t notice actually. I didn’t think about that to be fair. But now that you’ve mentioned it, yeah, it is very responsive and it feels very smooth. But yeah, it’s bigger. It’s more responsive. It’s like way more vivid to look at. Yes, overall a very pleasant experience.

Account Fatigue and Notification Bombardment on Samsung

So on the S26, there’s a weird kind of mix where I think I wanted to be using Google Play. I’m basically being encouraged to sign in with a Samsung account and a Google account. Yes. And all I want to do is just get some apps installed. I understand I need to sign in with something for whatever reason in case I want to buy an app, but it was frustrating constantly being met with like sign into Google or sign into Samsung. Admittedly, the Samsung one was just once, but Google was quite persistent.

Have you found battery life? Cuz you’re going from, again, this is old to new, but you gone from a 5-year-old phone with a smaller battery to a very large phone. I think the Oppo’s got a 7,000 mAh plus battery in it, which is silicon carbon, so it’s newer technology. Basically, allows you to fit a bigger battery in a smaller size. So, how you found that on the

Awesome. Yeah. Really good. Yeah, I think I charged it like three times.

You charged it three times in the two or three weeks we’ve had it so far.

Yeah. Wow. Okay. So, amazing. Yeah. Really pretty nuts. Okay. Interesting.

Off on the Samsung S26. You’ve ended up on of all the devices a nothing phone. Is that’s the 4A Pro, right?

Yes, the 4a Pro which is by no means a flagship phone. So, you’ve gone from an iPhone 17 Pro flagship Apple device to a mid-range, I would say, nothing phone over a Samsung phone. So, what why?

So, I ran into uh a few annoyances with the Samsung experience, I’d say. I had changed to gesture mode rather than button mode, but every time I unlocked, I managed to open up the Samsung wallet, which wasn’t working, or the Samsung Pay app wasn’t working for me, which would then prompt me to allow access to my phone contact book every single time I tried to unlock my phone. And it was completely user error, like there was just I needed to get to the home screen a different way. But the way that I had in my muscle memory just meant that I constantly opened up a pay app, was stuck in a notification screen that I had to try and dismiss. And I found those frustrations throughout the experience on the S26.

If I was searching for an app, rather than just like having a list of search results, I was having a load of recommendations come up, not for apps that I wanted to use, just for, oh, by the way, you can do this or you can do that. Or you open up the settings app and you’re prompted to then like, why don’t you set up this instead?

I was being overly helpful. It’s been too helpful.

I was I was being bombarded with information when really what I wanted was a kind of a clean slate. I have some notes of what this was like on the Nothing phone, okay comparison, but I was being introduced to every feature, like every screen, regardless if I was ready to have that information thrown at me or not.

Why Nothing OS Won Over Samsung’s One UI

So, I knew about nothing before, obviously, like we’ve done coverage on the website already. Um, aesthetics wise, I think it’s really nice, but it was a much cleaner experience. It’s the example when I was doing that same searching for an app. I hadn’t noticed it before for a few days of using it, but then when I searched for an app that I hadn’t realized I hadn’t installed yet, there was no results. So, I was then prompted to say to install the essential search app. Okay. Um to be able to get additional results or web results. Um, so it was only when I was in a position that I went it didn’t give me any results back that it then suggested, oh, maybe if you’re still looking for this thing, install another app.

Interesting. And I think nothing essential search is essentially their search everywhere. Maybe even AI search tool.

The examples it gives for me was like web searching and I think like the kind of photos it shows as like, oh, you searched for a popular landmark or something, so here’s the Wikipedia page for it.

Interesting. Which is very similar to the iPhone side of things, right? I guess does it I imagine it would be able to do similar things with like conversions if you want to convert like pounds to dollars or like weights and those kind of things. It just knows what you’re searching for and gives you the results that you want to see.

Yeah. But it was just particularly that it I didn’t even know about it until I was in a position where that could have been what I was after. It wasn’t at the time I was looking for an app. If I happened to be searching for a landmark, that was the right time to tell me that I needed to do something extra to be able to get those results compared to like the not notification screen on the S26, which was just always prompting me to set up something else or do something else. I still can’t log into my Hotmail account for whatever reason.

Okay, you’re one of very few that still has a Hotmail account, I think.

Well, yeah, it’s probably my own fault, but um accessories wise, it is definitely more lacking on the nothing. And also, it’s going to be the S26. I use Mag Safe a lot. I use a MagSafe wallet. Um, and my kind of little bedside table charger is a MagSafe one. Yeah. Um, and so the S26 and the Nothing 4a Pro was delegated to the USBC cable that was just on the floor next to me, which would have been different had you had the S26 Ultra because you could have then got the Magna C sponsor of the article to get your magnetic accessories to work.

However, but they also do make one for the S26 Plus and the Ultra, just annoyingly not the base model S26. And that’s how a lot of uh people are doing it this year. They do the phone with no magnets, but Q2 wireless charging and then they rely on a case to then give you the magnets. I haven’t looked into cases or anything like that for the Nothing Phone A, but I do find it suspicious it came with a clear case. That makes me think that maybe obtaining a case isn’t so easy for the kind of lower end uh phones. I assume there’s fewer accessories make makers actually making accessories.

I think specific with nothing, you’re probably correct. uh, with Samsung, there’s going to be tons of accessories for the Samsung because it is one of the world’s biggest selling phones.

The Missing Allure of Mobile AI

Did you use any AI tools on your phone?

I’ve not used any AI. Oh, wait, no. Google Lens. I opened Google Lens. Does that count as AI?

Uh, yeah. Let’s Let’s go with it. Where’s this going?

No. I used on like two things. I was like, “Oh, this is kind of cool.” I took a picture of like one of my speakers at home and it was like, “This is what this is.” So, that’s kind of cool.

So, not strictly AI. It’s just like image searches essentially. It’s Google image search but in a very clever way that’s just built into the operating system. Did you use any AI tools on either of the Androids?

No, not at all. I have the Chat GBT app and Claude installed on the uh I installed them on both phones, but I just used them as isolated within their apps.

Do you use Apple Intelligence?

No, I don’t use Siri. I don’t use Apple Intelligence either. I think I use So that’s a lie. I’ve used the writing tools. Okay. For Apple Intelligence. Um, but it’s almost like a glorified spell check at that point.

Yeah, fair. People actually don’t really use a lot of the AI tools. So, the fact that you could do things like photo manipulation, changing like adding a horse inside a photo of your family.

I just rarely find the need to. I mean, obviously, I’m missing my several hundred Gen emojis that I’ve made on my iPhone. Not okay. Um, you know, an image playground. Like, where is that on the Android phones? But no, the AI that’s useful for me is stuff like the day-to-day the spell check ones and uh and stuff like that and less around image manipulation.

The Security Gap: Biometrics and Passkeys

So if I go back to the S26 quickly and why I switched off the S26 is that there was nothing really compelling me to use it over my iPhone. I was carrying both and I ran into so many frustrations mainly just around wanting to do something but just being met with some something else, some other prompt, some incorrect gesture I was doing that was opening the wrong thing. And the fact that it was giving me nothing over my iPhone just meant that I kept going back to my iPhone and I realized I needed to do something otherwise I was not really doing the test. Yeah. So nothing phone called me to it. Although it’s not their flagship and it was quite simply obviously it was the appearance of it but also the glyph it just it was just something unique about this phone that made me want to pick it up and see what it could do. The glyph is my always on display for time. I always put my phone down screen down and have the time displayed on top.

Touch really quickly. You mentioned about pass keys. You were having problems. What what problems were you having with pass keys during the on boarding process signing into apps and stuff like that?

I needed to use passwords a lot. So the first thing I installed was one password has been my password manager for ages. I first had an issue with one password where I wanted to unlock with biometrics. And in my mind biometric means with my face or my fingerprint or you know all of that is part of my bio whatever. And I had only set up face unlock for the S26 and I was really confused that it wouldn’t let me do it. And it turns out that face isn’t good enough and I had to do a fingerprint.

So only on the Pixels do they have face unlock that will work for banking apps and password managers. They have just an extra security that makes it work. Whereas yeah on most other Android phones. It will only unlock the phone. It won’t unlock any other services. Unlike Face ID which has a lot more hardware in that front little pill thing that scans and does 3D depth and all sorts of things. Therefore the iPhones are more secure when it comes to Face ID.

I knew about this like what 6 years ago when Face ID came out that Android’s alternative was not as secure. But I had totally assumed that they would have caught up by now and it would be a full liar or whatever of your face, not liar. But yeah, so after doing that, that was fine. I was using one password happily and until every so often the suggested passwords would just disappear from the keyboard and I going to settings and it would show there as the default password uh manager, but I’d have to like tick it again before my passwords would be suggested to me or like credentials would be suggested when I go to log on to things.

And then I also just always ran into an issue where Google was trying to take over, especially with pass keys. So if I tried to sign on to anywhere, I would I would click on my email address as suggested by one password. I’d go on to the next screen where it was looking for a pass key and Google password manager is would pop up and tell me, oh, I can’t find any pass keys for you. And I could not get it to to go away and just use one password.

Final Verdict: Are They Keeping the Android Phones?

Overall impressions, like have you enjoyed the experience? Would would you be keeping the phone?

Um, yeah, I think so. I’ve to be honest, I’ve been carrying both phones around with me because I’m not like fully confident with this phone yet. I’m just comfortable with iPhone at this point. I’ve been like over 10 years on iPhone. Things like it syncing with my MacBook.

Well, AirDrop.

Airdrop and like iMessage like getting notifications when messages come through and stuff like that.

Apple ecosystem is that whole thing. Yeah. But this is the thing. This is why it’s kind of a fun challenge because like you don’t want to switch. No one in here in this room wants to switch, but I’m just forcing you to try it to see, you know, the whole like, is the grass greener on the other side. I was kind of hoping that someone might come out of this be like, actually, this I didn’t I didn’t want to switch, but this is actually incredible. I’m going to switch.

I’ve been carrying both rounds. So, I use this for like the camera and stuff for like watching videos, but then my iPhone is just like there because I just know it well, and it’s like got those features that I couldn’t get to work on the OPPO. So, if your iPhone broke, would you go get another iPhone? you would get

I would probably get a newer iPhone with better cameras cuz I’ve realized how nice it is to have like a really good camera in your pocket even though they won’t be as good as the cameras on that phone.

Are the newer iPhones like the the Pro Max and stuff with the the big cameras?

They are they are good. And this is like where half the time like I say in a lot of my articles ultimately it doesn’t really matter after that experience. I think I know what the answer is going to be. Are you going to keep an Android phone of any form or you going to go straight back to iPhone?

No. So I will be going straight back to iPhone. Um but it has been good to see and I am also tempted to do the same test with the must be the free pro I think the free pro for the better camera. if anything, this has shown me that I do not need the uh prolevel chips that you get with high-end devices because I’ve not had any performance issues or I’m not doing anything that I think would be a real issue with the more entry- level Snapdragon chip which is in the nothing for a plus the Snap that’s the Snapdragon 7 Gen 4. So, that is a year or two old chip that’s in the phone. It works.

The only let down, the only thing that would stop me from using this more heavily would be the camera system. It’s super close and the image quality that I’m getting from the cameras in a lot of situations, but I think of future proof and I think of a three-year-old daughter and I’m taking her pictures. I just want to know that I’m using the best possible camera available to me at the time. And that is what is making me go back to the iPhone or, you know, pushing me back to the iPhone. That’s why I couldn’t consider sticking with the Nothing 4a.

Ben, we did finish shooting that article two weeks ago. You don’t still need to use the Android phone, right? Do you still have your iPhone?

Switching from iPhone to Android: The Real Ecosystem Friction Nobody Talks About