Why I reluctantly switched from Android to iPhone

After six years of happily using an Android phone, my family told me to switch back to an iPhone. No, it has nothing to do with those blue text message bubbles. I don’t know why that’s such a big deal to people. Rather, there were some more practical reasons. First, it was so I could FaceTime my elderly mother, who is decluttering her house. She frequently asks me if she needs to keep, throw away, or sell certain items. This way I know exactly what she’s talking about. Second, for this column, I always have to test product companion apps that either only work on iPhone or run better and smoother on iPhone. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to pair an electric scooter or something with my Android phone and they just can’t recognize each other. Then I try the same process with my old iPhone and it pairs right away. And finally, my siblings wanted us all to be registered for Find My together, which is the most important thing in helping each other as we get older.

So what was the experience like? First of all, I downsized from a 2023 model 7-inch, super fast 5G Android smartphone to the original 4-inch iPhone SE. So it’s a bit harder on the eyes. But the truth is, I actually like the small screen, especially since it only takes up half the space of an Android smartphone in my pocket. Surprisingly, when it comes to loading web pages and navigating apps, the iPhone works just as fast as the Android on WiFi. Even on cellular networks, the speed difference is almost imperceptible in most cases. But I can definitely say that the phone reception on the iPhone is much worse than the Android.

The difference in screen size is most noticeable when I’m playing my favorite word games. Games like Quordle have a screen and text so small that the phone is nearly unusable. And the app doesn’t let you pinch and zoom. Having to put my iPhone into Accessibility Mode just for this purpose is frustrating. But it’s surprisingly easy to read e-books, web pages, magazines, documents, and more on the smaller screen. Of course, it’s a bit easier on the larger screen. If I like the iPhone, I might buy the latest and greatest model.

My iPhone has two other shortcomings. It’s my wife’s old phone, so the battery is worn out and needs replacing. Doing what you normally do on the phone in the first 2 hours after booting up only uses about 5% of the battery life on the Android. On the SE, it uses almost 60%. But I think if I swap out the battery for a new one, this will be fixed. Another issue is that the speakerphone on the iPhone SE is very quiet compared to the Android. This is probably because the phone is small and the speaker is small. The volume is about half what it is on other phones. So I use Bluetooth earphones whenever I can.

However, I have been pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to edit Google Docs on my iPhone. I don’t carry a computer with me when I go out, and I type or dictate everything on my phone. The process is just as easy on iPhone as it is on Android. Ironically, I think the scanning feature in Google Docs on iPhone is better than it is on Android phones. Google changed this feature on Android within the past year, and it was terrible. The iPhone version is similar to the old Android version.

And finally, as a Google fanboy I hate to admit it, the iPhone app seems more stable and runs smoother. For example, I’ve been testing the tracking card for the last month. It’s easy to set up and use on the iPhone, but a real pain on Android. Navigating the smart device is easy and works just as consumers would expect. Loading tickets into Wallet is a breeze.

So far, I’ll admit that I may have missed the point of why so many people love the iPhone, and while I’m not convinced otherwise, I don’t see myself switching back to an iPhone anytime soon.