Smartphone wars are tough. I am not even going to attempt to sway you one way or the other. It gets emotional, worse it even gets political! I will however, tell you the story of how I switched a few weeks ago to a high-end Android Smartphone as my daily driver. Especially rare given I have never used an Android since 2010. I will also tell you more about what I am loving, and what I miss…
User Experience on Android is miles ahead of iOS, yes even iOS 14
Android for the most part has nailed “micro-interactions”.
When someone sends you a message on WhatsApp that is merely informative, the system automatically picks up the context and gives you a pre-cooked auto-reply right within the notification pop-up – just tap “Okay” and done! That is not all, Android has better contextual menus that make it easier to do stuff then and there. Quick share buttons for examples are available everywhere, just hit on the URL in chrome, and there is a copy / share URL icon waiting for you. Widgets have been around in Android for ages, sorry iOS 14!
I love the Android Lock Screen Experience
The idle display for instance, displays precise elapsed time remaining for the battery to charge. Nice little icons appear about notifications you have received, for instance you may not worry about Amazon delivery notifications, you may however want to check when someone sends you a message via LinkedIn. This helps me de-clutter my attention. To add cherry on top, Google Assistant on locked screen gives me full access to a suite of features with options to customize – it is miles ahead of Siri at speed as well as range of things it can do. It is also more easily compatible with my Smart Home technology. I also love an AI driven screensaver option, you can ask the assistant to show you pictures of people you decide from Google Photos.
A few hardware features truly set Android apart from Apple, but
Once you get used to Fast Charge, you will not go back
I am completely addicted to fast charge on my Android device. 40-45 minutes of charge and the device is back to 100% I really don’t feel the need to carry around a power brick. Wireless charging is really fast as well. There is also reverse charging option I use to charge my AirPod Pro’s.
Much much better display that supports customization
The PPI on my screen is higher than that of Apple’s latest iPhone, the blacks are deep, the colours are just phenomenal and the gamut is very wide as well. Moreover, if I want to conserve my battery, I can switch to a lower resolution or a lower refresh rate. 90 Hz or Above display rate, is simply phenomenal – you just have to experience the butter smooth animations, and games.
Physical Switches & Connectors
I love having the option to flick a physical switch and go from silent mode, to vibrate to ringer mode. In case of Apple I mostly always set it on Vibrate, but it did disturb my sleep time to time unless I switched on do not disturb. Also its nice to finally move to USB C, cheap, now near ubiquitous, and probably more durable, I am glad not having to worry about a lightening connector.
Little things matter, and my high-end Android device has plenty of these that make me smile
Better Do Not Disturb and Well-being settings
Do not disturb in Android for example, has a wonderful option where you can grey-scale the screen, schedule it. I can alter pattern of notifications. All of these features I find very useful.
Better network management & smart acceleration
My phone has the option to use both Wi-Fi and Cellular when one of the connections is poor, it can also use both simultaneously to provide for blistering fast speeds by combining 5G and Wi-Fi. This is awesome to have. I find Wi-Fi connection switching is faster, more seamless, and also I like the option of connecting to a private DNS server/
Built-in Hands Free Alexa
This is truly awesome – when charging in the night by the bedside table, we have a fully functional Alexa with a smart display. This is particularly useful as I have automation that controls AC temperature, and all the lights and scenes through Alexa. I also have Smart Speakers connected via Alexa, so it becomes a fully functional smart device wherever I am.
I love under the glass fingerprint scanner
This feel futuristic, it is zippy and fast and I don’t have to hold the device to my face if I am in a meeting or video conference. Perhaps not quite laser secure but the phone has reasonably good Face ID as well.
iPhone camera (especially video) is unbelievably better
This is probably down to clever algorithms and better processors overall (Apple is miles ahead in that department). However I found inconsistent camera experience on my high end Android device. The selfie camera is average, it over processes images. The main driver sensor is high resolution, has amazing colour accuracy and HDR capability but somehow I don’t like how it focuses. Low light photography is better than iPhone though. Video is not great on this Android device, but honestly I don’t use the phone for videos at all.
Having said that, I do like the software control I have over the camera. Especially the ability to manually control shutter speed, white balance, and to use the camera along with a tripod and take long exposure shots is good to have, although I am not sure how much I will use it.
The good news is that iPhone and Android are borrowing each other’s features
Ultimately, you know what, it doesn’t matter. At least not to everyone. iPhone users love it for the simplicity, beautiful hardware, amazing cameras and rock stable hardware / software combo. This is not likely to change and I don’t think Android will ever come close to that level of perfection. Android users just love all the variety, the flexibility, the customization. Android and iOS both are maturing though as platforms, and therefore it is heartening to see the innovation is fast followed by both. Examples are ripe. See iOS for instance, it has widgets that have been common on Android for a very long time. Notifications are looking more and more alike, App groupings / App slices are also looking more like each other than unique features.
I love both iOS & Android and I am likely to use both but so far I just love Android as my daily-driver…
Call me a power-user but above mentioned reasons are enough for me to give Android a serious shot – at least for the next few months. I did find myself scrambling to download the iOS 14 beta though, but my reviews of that are likely to be biased as I am on an old, dated iPhone 7 plus device.
More power to smartphones! its been 13 years since first iPhone and then Android followed, but it feels like we are just getting started.
Oh and by the way, could you guess what high-end Android phone I am talking about?
Abhinandanshah.com 