After 12 years on Android, the iPhone has finally won me over

I’ve had an Android phone for more than 12 years. I had never been tempted to switch to iOS at the time. I do use some Apple products; I’ve owned an iPad since 2020, but this year I developed a newfound interest in the iPhone. After iOS 18 fixed many of my OS problems, I started using my iPad Pro more frequently during developer previews and betas.

Considering that smartphone advancements are stagnating year after year, trying something new might be the way to rekindle interest. I’ve been using an iPhone 16 Pro for the past month in order to answer the crucial question of whether Android is still the operating system that I should use.

In addition to my personal curiosity, I understood that reviewing a newer iPhone would enhance my coverage of Android phones. If nothing else, this experience will be worthwhile to enhance my work because it is crucial to be able to compare phones to their rivals when evaluating and recommending them.

I enjoy using the camera control.

For all but taking the picture.

To put it mildly, the Camera Control, one of the additions to the iPhone 16 series, has generated a lot of controversy. Although Apple has refused to refer to this as a button, it is one. When pressed, the physically moving button takes a picture.

But it’s not all that simple. You can “half-press” the camera control using the same technology as the iPhone 7’s old home button or the MacBook trackpads. Thanks to some amazing haptics, it feels like a real press.

It isn’t flawless, though, and I can see why some people find fault with it. Although I didn’t think it was that bad, many people have trouble determining how much pressure to use for the half-press. But I do agree with the criticism that it’s a button at all. The half-press tricks make it much harder to press the button all the way, which is why many of the pictures I’ve taken with this as a shutter button have been shaky and blurry.

I use the Camera Control to launch the camera, so that’s how I use it. The iPhone hasn’t had a practical method of launching the camera until recently, in contrast to Android phones that allow you to do so by double pressing the power button. I am aware that you can use the lock screen shortcut in the bottom right or swipe from the lock screen, but doing so requires waiting for the screen to turn on before opening the camera.

As you remove your iPhone from your pocket, you can access the camera using Camera Control, which functions similarly to the Android power button. I can start taking pictures right away because it rests exactly where my thumb does.

In summary, the Camera Control ought to have fully embraced the idea of not having a physical button. The experience would have been more consistent if Apple had relied on the haptic engine and the clever tricks it has been using since 2016. This would have also eliminated the need to press the button so hard to take blurry photos. It’s so close to greatness, offering a convenient way to start the camera and a place I feel at home.

On Face ID, I was mistaken.

but only in a sense.

I have long been against Face ID. Although the iPhone 16 Pro has altered my perspective on it, I still believe my previous criticisms are sound. My 2020 iPad Pro was the source of my technological problems; it consistently takes longer to unlock than I would like and at least twice a day fails to recognize me.

But based on my positive experience with Face ID on the 16 Pro, it’s evident that Apple has made some progress in the four years since the iPad’s release.

The ability of Face ID to function well with masks is what most impressed me. Many people were still wearing masks because of the pandemic when Apple added support for them in 2022.

Although that is no longer the case, I am among the people who will gain a great deal from it. I need to use a CPAP machine to make sure my breathing doesn’t stop during the night because I have sleep apnea. I cover everything from my chin to the bridge of my nose with a heavy sleep mask. Face ID is still functional, but I have to slightly adjust the phone’s angle to improve its vision of my eyes.

Although Face ID is impressive, I still prefer fingerprint scanners. My S24 Ultra boasts one of the best fingerprint readers available, and while I prefer it to FaceID, it’s not a feature that would make me choose one device over another.

I’d like to keep this camera.

Until it doesn’t, it simply works.

I shoot a lot of pictures. I’ve loved doing it since I was eight years old and got a phone with a camera. The iPhone 16 Pro’s camera has captured my attention. I have had nothing but great experiences with it, and every time I press the shutter button (as long as it’s the one on the screen), it takes crisp, natural-looking pictures.

Although there are many reasons why I adore my Galaxy S24 Ultra, the camera hasn’t been one of them. I still can’t say that I’m entirely satisfied with any of the pictures I’ve taken with it, and shutter lag is still a problem that is somewhat worse than with the Galaxy S23 Ultra. I also think that photographic styles are a huge plus. Since look-up tables (LUTs) can be changed or eliminated after the photo is taken, having them built into the camera makes it easier to use. I love experimenting with LUTs when I edit photos.

The 16 Pro’s 4K 120FPS slow-motion is also more entertaining than it should be. Because they seem cool in slow motion, I’ve taken the time to record some of the most ordinary things that I would normally overlook. The iPhone’s video is simply sharper and more aesthetically pleasing, but Android phones can also do slow motion, and my S24 Ultra is pretty good at it.

One thing about this camera experience annoys me: I can’t use 4K ProRes video without connecting to an external storage device because the base iPhone 16 Pro only has 128GB of storage. However, I shouldn’t have to tinker with 1080p ProRes. Perhaps all of the “pro” iPhones should have at least 256GB of storage if one of the “pro” features demands it.

I find it inexcusable that a $1,000 phone had only 128GB of storage, especially considering that the Galaxy S24+ and S24 Ultra all start at 256GB.

Notifications are problematic.

I apologize, Mom. Due to the foolishness of my phone, I missed your text.

iOS notifications have been a source of complaints from Android users for as long as I can remember, and I will now follow suit. The lock screen, which only displays notifications that have arrived since you locked the phone, is a complete farce. A message has frequently arrived just a split second before I locked the phone, meaning it never appears on the lock screen.

But the absence of a notification counter in the status bar is my main complaint. You have to swipe down into the notification center to see if you have any notifications unless you’re on the home screen and can see the badge over an app icon.

When a new message arrives, it appears as a banner at the top of the screen. However, if you are distracted by something else, you may not notice it until minutes or even hours later.

The iPhone cannot display a stack of notification icons like Android due to the Dynamic Island’s width, but there is still plenty of space for a feature that Samsung has had in One UI for years. On Samsung phones, you can swap out the individual notification icons in the status bar for a counter that displays the number of notifications you currently have. By itself, this would resolve my main grievance regarding the iPhone experience.

I enjoy Apple Intelligence and Siri.

What I do with my voice assistant, Siri can do.

Over the years, Siri has been the subject of numerous jokes. That’s not totally unjustified, but it’s still the voice assistant I like using the most in spite of its drawbacks. Talking to Gemini is cool, but all I want from these voice assistants is the ability to message people while driving, control my lights, and reliably ask for music—all of which Siri does better than Bixby, Google Assistant, or Gemini.

Google Assistant in Android Auto has never performed as well as “Hey Siri” commands when I’m driving. It hasn’t made a single mistake while driving in the month I’ve been using it, consistently producing flawless text messages of various lengths. Additionally, it works with every app I use. Google Assistant can only respond to messages you send; it cannot create new ones for Telegram. Siri does what I want it to, but it’s not as sophisticated as other assistants.

I’ve also liked using Apple Intelligence. I don’t care about conversing with an AI or creating strange-looking images. Smart features that genuinely save me time are what I care about, and Apple Intelligence excels at this one in a way that none of these other AIs can: Notification priority.

I’ve long admired iOS’s Focus Modes, which have improved with Apple Intelligence. Inside focus modes, Apple devices with Apple Intelligence have a toggle labeled “Intelligent Breakthrough and Silencing.”. When activated, Apple Intelligence will go through notifications and highlight those it deems significant, even if the sender is not on the list of permitted contacts or apps.

To demonstrate how this works, the iPhone would conceal any amusing memes or general questions from me until later if I received a text from someone. When I receive an urgent text, such as one informing me that a loved one is ill or that plans have changed for later that day, it will clearly notify me of the message and indicate that it may be significant.

Although this may seem like a minor detail, it’s actually the only AI feature I’ve used that has changed the way I use my phone. The AI photo generation, editing, and chatbots on Pixel, Samsung, and even iPhone 16 Pro devices are entertaining to play with, but I wouldn’t miss them if they disappeared.

Is it possible for me to switch to the iPhone?

Of course I could. I didn’t start out expecting to reach that conclusion, but I was surprised to learn how much more there is to love. I have experienced bugs and crashes in and out of the beta, just like I have on Android, so it’s not the smooth, flawless experience that some Apple fans would have you believe. The keyboards, including third-party ones, are terrible, and the notifications are awful.

The overall smoothness and the nearly flawless camera more than make up for those issues, though, and I could get used to them.

However, I will not be switching to an iPhone. Android is still the OS that I feel most comfortable using, and I like it. But if I had to, I could switch. After I’m acclimated, I’ll be content with the differences between iOS and Android. There are more things to love about iOS than I anticipated, and I’m eager to see what Apple does going forward. Trying something new is always a good thing.