As a person who has used 15 years of Android and other devices but not iPhones, here are my quick notes on it based on a couple of hours of first use:
Absolutely love the quality-feel it has
Unpopular opinion, but the keyboard is much better on an iPhone than on Android phones once you get hang of it
The UI... I'm in love. No bad sides of it. I don't even want to change anything.
The screen is so crisp
Things I need to accept:
The bottom swipe bar, can't disable or hide it. Well, most of the Android phones nowadays have it as well. I guess it's good for accessibility reasons
There is no right swipe gesture (back), but then again the back button is always near thumb, well designed. I will get used to it.
There is no fingerprint unlock. On Android phones where there was a face unlock I always disabled it because I was used to fingerprint. I need to get used to this, but I notice immediately I don't even miss the fingerprint now because face unlock is much better on iPhones. It actually shows the indicator about the unlock as where Android just feels it's "unlocked" and leaves you feeling uncertain did you even lock it. Apple makes sure with micro interactions. It's smooth.
Did I mention already, the UI is fabulous! Android has infuriating UI mistakes (see attached image). As an UI designer/developer iPhone is joy to use.
@rolle goods points. I’ll also comment as an ex Android user, the iPhone mini is a perfect device for someone who wants a small, high performing phone with no compromises. I feel like every other Android phone I purchased had some new hardware issue that bugged me endlessly.
Almost all apps work better and some even have features their Android equivalent does not have... For example Runkeeper has live tracking for friends. 1Password works better out of the box, with Androids it was really a pain.
Do Not Disturb / Focus more is more versatile. I can allow system wide notifications for certain people only and set up allowed people separately rather than just favorites.
Do Not Track and other insanely good privacy features built-in.
Better notification settings and no annoying notifications that cannot be hidden like on Android (System notifications can't be hidden on Android 13).
@rolle Absokutely. My phone doesn’t make a sound. A handful of notifications make it to my watch, but they’re all set to haptic (a light tap on the wrist), even my wake-up alarm.
@rolle There is back swipe gesture. The thing is you need to start at the very edge of the screen though. And ok it is a bit different in that sense that it is not "global" like in Android. You cannot go to home screen for instance, you can only navigate back inside app's navigation hierarchy. Also some (bad) apps might not have it.
@rolle
I am an old iPhone user who switched to Android long time ago because iPhone screens were too small despite the better UI
My family is all iPhone but I stayed on Android because Google Now (assistant) was just an amazing experience.
Now, assistant is just garbage, has a mind of it's own, it decides when it should or shouldn't notify me of important events! definitely considering going back to iPhone, why ut up with worse UI?
@samir Indeed. I didn't want to use iPhone also for the tiny screen sizes back in the days. But iPhones are bigger now, the iPhone 14 Pro I got has screen of 6,1 inches, iPhone 14 Pro Max has even 6,7 inches screen, just like most of the large Android phones.
@rolle Your assessment aligns pretty well with my initial assessment after being an Android user for almost all my smartphone age (did I mention Maemo?).
@rolle iPhone 15 will launch in a month, but I bet a lot of money on the fact that the changes will be very minor.
Rumors has it that Pro (Max?) would be made from titanium instead of stainless steel, bezels are 30% smaller (Pro already has acceptable small bezels) and the notch would be smaller.
@kypeli Yeah I neede this phone thing solved fast so only spent a week comparing things. I get easily anxious if it's not 100% and over with :blob_smile_sweat:
@ikkeT@rolle I'm on the latest version of the iPhone SE (same form-factor as the iPhone 8), and I'm happy with the size. Bigger than that … I don't know.
@WTL I have tablet for better reading. Phone keeps popping out of pockets, and anyhow make dent in either ball if it manages to fit in 😳. I prefer the old smaller phones.
@ikkeT I dug out an old iPhone 5 I kept as a spare to see if I could use it for some audio recording (yes), and it's delightfully small, even compared my my iPhone SE.
@ikkeT Tuo OP 11 on iPhoneen verrattuna pirun pyöreä ja liukas. iPhone pysyy kädessä.
En myöskään itse tykkää kuorista. Ovat tiellä. Juuri koskaan ei putoa ja jos putoaa, lasin voi korjata. Pari kertaa tullut särö koko elämäni aikana. Koitan muutenkin välttää esim. kävellessä näpyttelyä.
@rolle I've always felt that Google products are over-engineered compared to others, which leaks into the UI. That said, the Samsung UI is quite polished these days, and about as clean as you can get while maintaining the flexibility afforded by the OS
My general view is that iPhones are for people who want a phone without thinking about the internals of the phone, and accept the associated limitations; Android is for people who don't mind thinking about the tech a bit and want the flexibility.
@rolle Yeah, that's pretty much what I meant. If you want a flexible device that can do more, then you need to accept things like inconsistencies and UIs that aren't as "designed."
I don't think I'd be happy with an iPhone as I like to play about with the tech too much.
@bitflipped I played around Androids and custom ROMs for 15 years. No desire to do that any longer. Most of the time nailed it, but there were times I cursed things when radios didn't work and calls hung up. I have Linux computer and it's harder to soft brick :blob_smile_sweat: I get all the joy of customizing from computers. Phones need to be phones. Apps are already "decided" and designed. I have come in terms with the fact a mobile OS could have similar meaning for me personally, as is.
@rolle I got to the same point as that with Linux some years ago tbh, and switched over to Windows exclusively, but now I'm back with it as I miss the tinkering 😀. That said, I'm currently working on something that's made significantly easier with Visual Studio, so I'm switching between the two depending on whether I'm doing dev work.
@rolle The keyboard adjustment was the hardest part for me. I was used to where Gboard placed its symbols. I tried Gboard on iPhone but it was a fail because for certain use cases like password entry, Apple forces its keyboard. So I bit the bullet and learned the Apple keyboard. It’s fine, especially now that they have swype typing
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