I bought an iPhone.

[mikedt]

After 16 years of using Android phones. I bought a new iPhone 17. My Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra is starting to show signs of old age, the back fell off, the middle camera seems to have developed myopia, and the battery no longer holds as much charge as it used to. But it is the longest lasting phone I've ever had. Main reason for buying an iPhone, is that recent versions of Chinese Android can no longer install and use Google Play Services(Donald Trump to blame?), which is a show stopper for me.

 

[Fox Mulder]

Don't let the door hit you on the way out-

 

[Hadron]

Well iPhones have come along, and more importantly so has iOS. Still less flexible than android, but I could live with it if I had to (I have an iPad, so have some working familiarity with how the OS is these days).

I traded my 5 year old s21 for a Pixel 11 Pro. I didn't think that the Galaxy would last me another year, and with so-called AI companies driving component prices up for everyone I doubted prices will drop as much through the year as they have historically, so figured the enhanced trade-in deals for the release (£480 for a 2021 handset) might well be the best discount I'd see.

 

[mikedt]

Something took me a little while to get used to with the iPhone. When making purchases with Wechat Pay,, I was instinctively going for a fingerprint sensor that's not there. The iPhone uses face recognition, which so far seems to be reliable. All the apps I used regularly on the Samsung, I've been able to install. Including Foobar2000, my favourite music player.

 

[Hadron]

I've been playing with Google's latest face recognition on my Pixel. For unlocking the device it works well when combined with the "raise to wake" gesture, meaning I don't have to press or swipe anything to unlock (unlike Apple's version it doesn't work well in the dark, so I use fingerprint then). But for authenticating apps (banking, NHS etc) it often tells me it's failed before I have had a chance to point the camera at my face, meaning I have to use the fingerprint anyway, and even when it works I still have to tap to confirm I meant to do it (which is reasonable as you don't want to unlock such an app accidentally, though I can't really think when that might happen anyway). So I'm using it just for unlocking the device, and using fingerprint for app security.

 

[AppleUser]

I'm a life-long Android user (phone) and find it intuitive and user friendly 99% of the time. Since 60% of the USA use an iPhone and my son enjoys the iPhone, I purchased a the iPhone 18 Pro. OMG--- so many parts are NOT easy. The screen image is better on my A54. I made a list of ten issues with the iPhone, and my sonehelped with about half. Why does one have to press a button simultaneously on each side of the phone in order to do a shut down? Why did Apple make the side cursor in Photos so small that it's difficult to use? My son showed me "shortcuts" app and we both had difficulty using it, but finally I was able to put an icon on the Home Screen and named it "Shut Down". Then using ChatGPT we got the iPhone screen to look as good as, but not better than, the A54. I read the alleged reasons the iPhone doesn't have a Home button, but the reasons were not compelling. The iPhone induction charging is nice. So far, I'm 82% in favor of returning it. Thought I'd get help at a Genius Bar - - - no, all booked up for a week probably because of this new release). The most impressive part thus far was Apple's "Move to IOS" app. It transferred all sections. even all my calendar events, embedded and gmail associated.

 

[Milo Willamson]

I'm a life-long Android user (phone) and find it intuitive and user friendly 99% of the time. Since 60% of the USA use an iPhone and my son enjoys the iPhone, I purchased a the iPhone 18 Pro. OMG--- so many parts are NOT easy. The screen image is better on my A54. I made a list of ten issues with the iPhone, and my sonehelped with about half. Why does one have to press a button simultaneously on each side of the phone in order to do a shut down? Why did Apple make the side cursor in Photos so small that it's difficult to use? My son showed me "shortcuts" app and we both had difficulty using it, but finally I was able to put an icon on the Home Screen and named it "Shut Down". Then using ChatGPT we got the iPhone screen to look as good as, but not better than, the A54. I read the alleged reasons the iPhone doesn't have a Home button, but the reasons were not compelling. The iPhone induction charging is nice. So far, I'm 82% in favor of returning it. Thought I'd get help at a Genius Bar - - - no, all booked up for a week probably because of this new release). The most impressive part thus far was Apple's "Move to IOS" app. It transferred all sections. even all my calendar events, embedded and gmail associated.

And yet people often wonder why Androids are more easier then iphones, smh.

 

[mikedt]

With me a British expat living in China, and now seeing the current state of Android phones here, Including Samsung, it now seems the iPhone is the best and easiest device to use here now. I was able to sign into my UK Apple ID straight away on it, and installed all the Western and Chinese apps I needed. My sister is here this week an she brought her British version Samsung S25 Ultra with her. I've been looking at it, and it just looks like there's just too much pre-installed bloat and services on the thing now. It now seems Samsung is trying to duplicate everything Google does. This evening we checked into a hotel in Nanjing, which uses a Wechat mini-app to unlock the bedroom doors. My iPhone it worked straight away, Susan's Samsung, it took ages to activate it, finding out which permissions it needed.

I found no problems with the photos app, And the fact you got to press two buttons to shut it down, that's not something I do very often. My old Note20 Ultra has wireless charging, as the iPhone has it as well is nice.

As an aside, many laptops here no longer come with Windows. They have their own locally home-grown Chinese OSs, and it isn't Linux, e.g. Huawei's Harmony OS. So using a Macbook, is absolutely something I've got to have.