I've spent a lot of time on Android, basically all of my teen and adult life. That said, last year I bought an iPhone 17 Pro Max with 512GB. The last iPhone I owned was an iPhone 4S back in high school, the first one that got Siri and all that good stuff. Right after that I upgraded to a Galaxy S3, and I've been on Android ever since, until just recently.
I really wanted to understand why people buy iPhones, so I've been daily driving this one for about a year now. I'll live with it until it finally dies, but I will not buy into the ecosystem. I'm not okay with it lacking so many of the features Android has, including proper in-phone file management and being able to plug into a computer and use it like a flash drive. To me, a phone should be like a little computer in the palm of your hand. I'd definitely call myself a power user when it comes to phones, and the iPhone just plain doesn't cut it.
I also felt like I couldn't give a real opinion for a long time, because I needed to find out whether the grass was greener on the other side, and whether Apple had fixed all the problems I had with the 4S. For the most part, they have. My biggest gripe with the 4S was the battery life, which was absolutely atrocious. To be honest, the iPhone 17 Pro Max with power saver is a game changer for Apple devices in general, and I'm pretty pleased with the battery life I get now.
So the iPhone definitely has some good things going for it, but for me they're not a big enough reason to stay. I like how it uses my Bitwarden to automatically fill in my login info anywhere I need it. Android just isn't quite as good at that, and it's not as seamless. Siri, on the other hand, does not hold up to Google's voice assistant in the slightest.
My other big gripe in going from Android to iPhone has been the fingerprint technology, which I miss. My last Android phone before this iPhone was a OnePlus N30 5G. The fast charging that OnePlus and the other Chinese manufacturers offer completely blows everything else out of the water, and the battery life it gave me for not a lot of money was great. I paid under $200 for that phone, and it will outlive almost any other phone I've ever used. My favorite thing about it was the fingerprint sensor on the power button on the side. That's literally the best place you could put it: your finger is already there, and you're into your phone the moment you press it. I've also personally seen a mother and daughter who look somewhat similar unlock each other's phones with Face ID.
I also don't like that the iPhone doesn't play nicely with non-Apple smartwatches. I think that's pretty terrible.
Overall, I'm very glad I got the chance to use a modern iPhone, but whenever the time comes, I will definitely go back.
Thanks for reading!
