I got my first—THE very first—iPhone in 25 years of owning a mobile phone, earlier this month.
Yeah, that feels like a complete post in itself. I could just end it with, ‘That’s the tweet’ and move on. But, it certainly deserves a detailed post on my observations 🙂
With my iPhone 15 Plus, iOS becomes the 7th mobile OS I’m experiencing, after Siemens, Nokia, Samsung Bada, Symbian, BlackBerry, and Android. Because my first phone was way back in 1999, I keep mixing the Siemens phone with an Alcatel-something, but looking at my older emails, I realize I had a Siemens C25, and not any phone from Alcatel 🙂
I have been using a Mac (MacBook Air, since 2013, and assorted MacBook Pros for almost a decade). So I know how Apple operates, on a hardware level, and more importantly, on a software level. But having been with Android since 2011 (Samsung Galaxy S2), I have totally bought into the dual nature of the operating systems I interact with every day – Mac OS for the laptop and Android for the smartphone.
So, what made me shift from my perfectly functional OnePlus 10 Pro (my 4th OnePlus, after 5T, 6T, and 9) to the iPhone 15 Plus? And this, despite knowing the potential compromises I may be making after having invested so many years in Android as a user?
To be honest, there is no big reason. In a way, the larger reason is just boredom. OnePlus was offering a substantial deal for my 1.5-year-old OnePlus 10 Pro if I exchanged it for a new OnePlus 12. And the 12 looked really, really good – very good reviews everywhere. But it was the same thing, just incrementally better in some aspects. So I decided to plonk myself into something unknown and make myself uncomfortable 🙂
And surprisingly, except for a few areas where I do feel the compromise, the change has not been that drastic at all!
WhatsApp data transfer
In terms of operational issues, the store (Imagine) warned us outright that WhatsApp messages cannot be transferred and that I need to start afresh with no messages. They said that I can try, but they cannot guarantee that it would happen. That was a fairly big dealbreaker. But I read more about it and decided to take the plunge, confident that I can make it work.
It helped that I did not exchange my OnePlus 10 Pro for the iPhone 15 Plus. I waited and sold it via Cashify 2 weeks later. The Imagine store was offering me Rs. 15K for the old phone, while I managed to sell it for Rs. 24K via Cashify!! So please remember the next time you are tempted to exchange a phone… don’t! Sell it on your own.
This gave me enough time to read more about the Android to iOS data transfer process and I managed to get all my WhatsApp message archive into my iPhone. It took some trial and error, and learning, but it worked. But I couldn’t get my text messages archive transferred into my iPhone. A lot of people are complaining about this online and I’m glad I’m not alone. This could also have something to do with the ‘Blue vs. Green’ bubble war going on between Apple and Android.
But it’s ok. These days, text messages are mainly spam and OTP. WhatsApp is where the actual ‘messaging’ happens. So, this issue is not a dealbreaker.
Goodbye, fingerprint scanner!
I thought I would miss the fingerprint scanner a LOT. But after seeing how incredibly smooth and responsive Apple’s Face ID is, I miss the fingerprint scanner far less than I had anticipated. Yes, it is a bit annoying to pick the phone up and show my face to it when it is on the table beside me (while in Android, I don’t need to pick it up at all and just use the fingerprint scanner), but this is something I got used to with a lot more ease.
And the Face ID works even in a pitch-dark room (it uses Infrared, it seems). The best part is the ease with which Face ID works for things like UPI payment apps and App store permissions. The smoothness with which it handles these tasks is far, far better than the same tasks that I used to do with fingerprint scanning on my earlier Android phone.
Ironically, the Android phones too have a Face ID/scanner, but they don’t seem to work as sweepingly good or as useful (across applications). I don’t know why.
On that note, probably the best fingerprint scanner that I have used in phones was with the Nexus 6P and OnePlus 5T, where it was placed on the back. It felt intuitive and useful, unlike the on-screen fingerprint scanners these days.
If I were to list my 2 biggest grouses (real compromise; or a step down from Android), they would be…
1. Notifications:
Android notifications appear on the lock screen and as icons on the top of the screen. There seems to be a smoother sense of how they land on the lock screen and how they are handled there. On my iPhone, despite trying all 3 options (Count, Stack, and List), I am not as comfortable with notifications as I was with Android. It’s probably just that I was used to a system and simply experiencing the disorienting sensation of being in a new system. But, to be fair, it is not a deal-breaker – it is functional. Apple could, however, make it a lot better.
2. Back!!!
Surprisingly, my biggest (still not a deal-breaker, of course) grouse is iOS not having a universal back button or gesture. Sure, I can swipe right from most screens to go ‘back’, but it is, most definitely, not universal across all apps. On many apps, to go back, I need to use in-app navigation buttons (many of which are in the top left corner) and this means a one-handed use of the phone is out of the question (or, at least something I can do with considerable effort).
For a company (and OS) that touts superior user experience extensively, I’m very surprised that Apple/iOS has not done anything about a universal back button or gesture whereas Android makes both available – a button or a gesture, and makes it truly universal across any app! Sure, I can argue that I can get used to the lack of this feature, but there is no doubt in my mind that iOS’s implementation is inferior to Android’s. Coming from Apple, that is a big shocker.
Swipe right? Or, swipe left?
There are smaller annoyances like the direction of swiping notifications away. On Android, I can do it both ways (left to right, or right to left), but on iOS it HAS to be right to left.
Stay there, icon!
Then, the placement of icons cannot be random. iOS forces them to the nearest spot in the row, whereas Android allowed me to place them anywhere on the screen and even change the grid size. This felt a bit like a control-freak parent watching over me 🙂
Open sesame, home screen!
There is also the one about the home screen! Even if the Face ID recognizes me, I still need to manually swipe up to go to the home screen, away from the lock screen. On Android, the movement is automatic. I miss the simple act of just going to the home screen as soon as the phone unlocks. The swipe-up gesture seems redundant. iOS could at least give users that option – swipe-up to go to the home screen, or go directly to the home screen. There are shortcuts, of course, like a double-tap the back of the phone to go to home screen without a swipe-up, but these are compromises, at best.
On a related note, there is no way to decline a call through the lock screen! You can press the side (or volume) button once to mute the ringing, or double-press the side button to cancel/decline the call. But on-screen, there is no option! I did read about justifications for this – to avoid wrongly declining a call (when the phone is inside the pocket, and so on). But they don’t fully make sense to me. A simple option, at a software level, to decline the call would be practical and useful. It is odd that a company as evolved as Apple is indulging in such annoyances.
Farewell, scrolling screenshots
I also miss the ability to take scrolling screenshots, something I do often. Android’s scrolling screenshots feature was a big plus. I haven’t found a 3rd party app on iOS that can emulate that action, yet.
What’s dynamic about Dynamic Island?
The much-touted Dynamic Island is quite a creative way to hide the camera notch. Full marks to Apple for finding an inventive way to hide the notch by taking more space, instead of how everyone else thought – by reducing the notch as much as possible. But in a larger sense, it’s a vacuous idea, particularly when you watch video on the phone. Instead of a tiny notch bothering your full-screen video, a big ‘dynamic island’ bothers you. The Dynamic Island is a nice party trick, at best.
Galaxy Watch 5 gone, Fitbit Versa 2 is back!
Also, a big personal bummer: I moved from Fitbit Versa 2 to a Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 in October 2023. When I tried to install the Galaxy Health app on my new iPhone 15 Plus, I couldn’t find the Galaxy Watch 5 at all! Then I realized that Galaxy Watch 5 is exclusive to Android. There is no iOS app at all. So I was forced to go back to my older Versa 2 (even there, the app is clunky; click on ‘Zone Minutes’, and the app crashes, consistently!).
But in this process, I also realized that I do not need a smartwatch at all (else I would have moved to an Apple watch). Even in my Galaxy Watch 5, I did not have any phone-based notifications. All I used were the fitness/health-related features only. For that, the Versa 2 is more than adequate. The Galaxy Watch 5 also had extra-generous sleep tracking and extra-stringent step/activity tracking: meaning, it was recording my sleep as very good mostly (though I did not feel that way) and the step/activity counter needed a really conscious effort to count. For instance, with my daily run, only after about 5-10 minutes, the Watch 5 would announce that it is detecting something steady in the name of a run, whereas the Versa 2 starts immediately. And Fitbit’s sleep tracking (with the annual subscription at Rs. 999 per year) is far superior, granular, and perhaps more accurate.
The Galaxy Watch 5 is gorgeous and very good, but it wasn’t what I really needed. And it took a comically amusing forced realization after moving to iPhone for me to truly understand this.
On that note, if you are looking for a relatively less-used, under 6-months old, in great condition (with 2 straps) Samsung Galaxy Smart 5 that works only on Android, ping me 🙂 It can be yours for Rs. 15K.
Now, if I were to talk about the positives, the biggest one—and one I did not expect at all—is battery life and better management. Here, the fact that the software and hardware are tightly controlled by one company totally shows.
Battery!
My iPhone 15 Plus easily lasts 2.5 days! So, if I charge it on a Sunday night, the next charge (when the phone goes below 10% battery) is only on a Wednesday noon! The way the battery works is also impressive. If I go to sleep with 88% battery, when I see it in the morning, it is at best 87% or 86% (I have ‘Do Not Disturb’ on for the night)! On the Android I have owned, I usually see a 5-10-15% drop in battery overnight. Overall, the battery management seems far more impressive than Androids that I have used. The iPhone 15 Plus seems to hold and manage a charge really well. But then, most new phones usually work that way. The real test would be say, after 6-12 months.
On the downside, I got used to my OnePlus 10 Pro’s insanely fast charging. I used to get the phone fully charged in under 35 minutes. In comparison, a full charge for the iPhone 15 Plus takes 110-120 minutes!! So charging, as a task, needs some planning. But it’s a good tradeoff, overall – fast charge, so forget about charging vs. holds the charge well, really long, so forget about charging. Both are useful on a similar note.
Camera
The camera is, expectedly, insanely better than any I have used in an Android phone (no, I haven’t tried any of the recent Samsung phones). They just seem to do the best with minimal effort in the default mode.
Mac integration
Also, the way the iPhone integrates with my Mac is both expected and outstanding. To get the same level of functionality, I had to install 3rd party apps on my older Android phone (Droid Over Wireless for file transfer, and PushBullet for notifications mirroring). But between iPhone and Mac, everything is super smooth, understandably. Airdrop, for file movement, is incredibly handy.
Your own ringtone?
The lack of a visible file/folder system when I plug in my phone to the Mac is a bit annoying and I’m forced into an iTunes-like interface. The Android File Transfer interface gave me a lot more freedom. But then, this is not a deal-breaker – I can still get whatever I want done easily enough. Of course, something as simple as adding my own music clip and making it a ringtone is ridiculously simple on Android and ridiculously convoluted on iPhone… but, with a little tweaking it can be done. Since I don’t do this daily, it doesn’t matter that it was ridiculously roundabout and complex.
Spectacles vs. contact lens
In terms of overall experience of using the iPhone, after having spent 24+ years on all other phones, and 13+ years of being on Android, it feels like the difference between wearing spectacles and wearing contact lenses (I’ve been on contact lenses for the past 25 years). But here’s the clincher – it’s not linear as iPhone = contact lens and Android = spectacles. That’s the odd dichotomy.
There are instances when the reverse is true: iPhone = spectacles and Android = contact lens. But more often than not, the iPhone does seem like contact lens in front of the spectacles-Android. The iPhone does feel a bit more polished and sophisticated in terms of overall user experience, despite niggling annoyances here and there, which too, materialize ONLY because of my innate familiarity and comfort with Android over a long time.