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I’m playing with fire. People know me as the iPhone guy. I’m that bloke from the UK who has made eleventy fourteen videos about how brilliant the iPhone 13 mini is/was.
I’ve defected. Gone over to ‘the dark side’. My iPhone 15 Pro Max currently resides, switched off, in the smartphone drawer at my studio.
I’ve not used it for weeks.
I switched to the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra because I needed to put my money where my mouth is. I kept referring to it as the best smartphone I’ve ever used – how could I not make it my daily driver?
The question I’ve been asking myself consistently since making the leap into Android Land is: do I actually miss the iPhone? Am I pining for it? Are there moments throughout the day when I wish it was still by my side?
As it turns out, yes, I do miss it. A little bit.
The stuff I miss
I don’t miss the Natural Titanium finish on my iPhone 15 Pro Max. I don’t miss the ultra reliable, get-it-done camera system. I couldn’t give two hoots about the absence of the Dynamic Island in my life. The Action Button? I’d genuinely forgotten it existed until I wrote it down then.
The stuff I miss from the iPhone is biblically mundane. The biggest one is something I’ve talked about a lot – the ability to easily move files between my phone and the Mac. In Apple Land, it just works. When you begin straddling the vastly different lands of Apple and Android, it gets complicated. Thanks to my (mostly) lovely YouTube audience, I’ve got a bunch of suggested workaround apps to solve this conundrum. When I get time, I’ll take a look.
Although, I do seem to be getting on just fine at the moment by using Google Photos as the conduit between both devices. So, maybe it doesn’t matter that much, after all.
Synced note-taking is another issue I’m running into quite regularly. Earlier this week, I was at a press briefing where I began taking notes on my MacBook. We were then ushered into a different room, and I decided to leave my MacBook behind. When the next presentation began, I realised I only had my S24 Ultra to hand, and that didn’t have access to Apple Notes. This led to me creating a separate note on my phone and then exporting and saving a PDF version in Dropbox, which I subsequently retrieved on my MacBook, before embedding it into the original Apple Notes file.
A right old faff.
Yes, I know I could solve this by using a cross-platform note-taking app, but I really cannot bring myself to make such a faff-laden switch.
I’m still having issues with health data syncing on the S24 Ultra. This relates to the network of health devices and apps I’m currently using, which comprises a Garmin watch, a WHOOP band, an Ultrahuman ring, and a personal trainer app. On iOS, all of that stuff syncs perfectly with Apple Health. On One UI – no chance. I now have to start workout routines separately on both the Garmin watch and the WHOOP band. Which is annoying.
Lastly, there’s the typing experience. I’ve never really got on with Samsung keyboards – despite the joy of having a permanently available number key row. I make more mistakes, and I’m not a fan of the barrage of underlined text on everything I write, even when it is, to my eyes, grammatically perfect. I’m getting used to it, though.
That’s the takeaway, really; I’m getting used to being a Samsung Person.
There’s something I never thought I’d write.
Reactions
One of the most interesting things since switching from the iPhone to the S24 Ultra is the reactions I’ve witnessed from friends, family, and fellow YouTubers.
Friends can’t fathom why I’ve bothered defecting, even though they know it’s intrinsically linked to what I do for a living. Members of my family either can’t give two hoots, or emit a “hmm!” noise when I reveal my new daily driver.
It’s the reactions of fellow tech YouTubers that has been the most surprising, though.
“Woah, you actually did it?” said one.
Others have simply cocked a wry smile after spotting the S24 Ultra in my hand and muttered something along the lines of, “oh, you did it, then?”, followed by, “what do you miss from the iPhone?”.
Bar that one knocked-back reaction, the rest really have been either tepid or confused. The latter speaks to how dominant the iPhone is in western culture. It’s the device most people opt for by default, because… well, it’s an iPhone, isn’t it? Why buy anything else?
My peers react differently because they know what I’m up to. And it seems to tempt them, too. The guy who couldn’t believe I’d actually made the switch? He sent me a photo this morning of his new daily driver – an S24 Ultra.
The Apple Watch Ultra factor
I may not have used the iPhone 15 Pro Max for a few weeks, but the Apple Watch Ultra has been lying in that same drawer for far longer.
In its place, I’ve been wearing (and very much enjoying) the Garmin MARQ Commander – a military-focused watch which, I think, offers everything I need on my wrist. And, yes, a review is coming soon.
As I type, something else is on my wrist, due to an upcoming review. I can’t tell you what it is until the embargo lifts, but it has, once again, placed a huge question mark over my prior reliance on and devotion to the Apple Watch.
I’m pretty sure that my desire to explore beyond Apple’s wearable, and the consistency with which I’ve done so over the last twelve months has helped me ‘get over’ the iPhone far quicker than I would have otherwise. By peeling myself gradually away from the trappings of the Apple ecosystem, I’ve realised that I’m not as reliant on it as I thought I was.
The bottom line: do I miss the iPhone?
I do miss the iPhone. It was an inevitability; I was an iPhone user for over ten years. It’s a brilliant device – polished to the point of near-perfection.
The iPhone also has the best ecosystem. I know I’m saying that before fully exploring Samsung’s, but the key component Apple has in its favour is the Mac; it’s telling why the main thing I’m missing from my iPhone is it’s ability to talk to a particular computer.
However, I don’t miss the iPhone enough to go through the rigmarole of switching back to it. The S24 Ultra is such a good device, and has nailed everything else I’ve asked of it since switching, that I just don’t see the point.
I haven’t run into any significant issues with app compatibility or quality (even if the latter is slightly sub par, still on Android). I’ve also put the S24 Ultra to work consistently for my YouTube channel; it has provided b-roll footage for a fair few of my most recent videos, and it absolutely smashes vertical short form content capture.
The conclusion I’ve drawn thus far is a simple one: it doesn’t actually matter which smartphone you use these days. They’re all brilliant. They’re all more capable than most of us can appreciate. But, most importantly, none of us are as stuck with our chosen device as we think we are.
