Turning my back on the Android operating system seemed like a step I’d never likely take. Abandoning the freedom of Android’s open source software stack and swaying towards the ball and chain of Apple’s iOS sounded unfathomable. “The restrictions are countless,” I’d tell myself as I slid the soft key home button on my Cyanogenmod-loaded HTC One to reveal my neatly piled quick-info cards. But alas, boredom, the burning desire for simplicity, and the fact that the most customization I’ve done on my phone in the last year is change the wallpaper, took me over to Apple’s dark side.
I pre-ordered the iPhone 6S in Gold and 64GB of storage memory on the 12th of September. Minutes, hours and days of harshly abusing the F5 button later, the DHL man pulled through on the 25th and delivered it to my doorstep. All full of giggles and uncontrolled excitement, I carefully and meticulously unboxed the iPhone. The white glossy front threw me a wink and I knew I’d made the right decision.
But unboxing and reviewing the phone itself aside, the purpose of this article is to compare and contrast the drastic daily driver conversion. To do that, I’m going to compare a day’s use of the HTC One M8 running Cyanogenmod 12.1 to the iPhone 6S running the latest 9.0.2.
It’s 5:50 a.m. and like any normal human being I hit the snooze button and try to catch 3 extra minutes of shuteye. 5:53 a.m., I slowly turn left to my nightstand and pick up my Smartphone. My thumb hits the Wakeup buttons and the dimmed down screen burns my retinas as my pupils carefully adjust to prevent me having a seizure.
Lockscreen
Like any standard Smartphone you’re greeted with a standard lockscreen displaying your time, date and slide to unlock feature. The iPhone 6S is packing the new Touch ID that’s super fast. No, seriously, super super fast. Gone are the days when your lockscreen was actually meant to display your notifications. A quick click of the home button automatically reads your Fingerprint in lightning speed and you’re immediately greeted with your homepage. So fast it’s actually quite annoying. A “force touch” of your lockscreen on the iPhone (when you have a live wallpaper) brings it to life. A gimmick, but nonetheless a cool one. Tapping the Android’s lockscreen bounces things around and laughs in your face for not having Touch ID.
Homescreen
I’m not the biggest fan of Apple’s icon pages. I love my homescreens minimal: no widgets and only the essentials (Phone, Camera, Messages and Chrome). Not having an Apptray to keep all my aesthetically unpleasing icons tucked away from my poor eyesight drives me nuts. A quick swipe from the first page right and you’re greeted with two completely different form factors. The iPhone scraps the Spotlight feature and offers Siri suggestions, nearby locations including Restaurants, Bars and Gas, and the new News suggestion. The Nexus greets you with the infamous Google Cards layout and the ability to ask anything when you yell out “Hey Google…” to figure out how tall Barack Obama is.
Navigation and Typing
One of the biggest reasons for my switch was the need for a one-hand manageable device. Although my hands are tiny, I still find it extremely easy to type and navigate the entire phone using one hand. With a market that’s demanding pushing more pixels on your phone, screens over 5.5” are becoming the norm. That’s where a 4.7” Retina Display balances size and screen resolution. At only 326 ppi vs. 441 on the HTC, it still delivers a superb viewing experience. Videos and images are crisp and that late night YouTube binge doesn’t leave me dissatisfied. But it’s not all sugar and spice. Bump down the brightness to bare minimum to save battery and you deem your iPhone screen in daylight practically unusable.
The vast majority of my smartphone’s battery is consumed by the various messaging apps. I don’t know how the cool kids do it nowadays, but I’ve never been a fan of the abbreviated text lingo. I don’t write “u” instead of “you” and I use more punctuation than Charlotte Brontë. I’m also trilingual, and text my contacts in all 3 languages. That’s where I find Apple’s keyboard a catastrophic failure. You have to press the “123” key to be able to insert a comma, where as on Android it’s right there next to the globe! In what god-forsaken world is a comma not noteworthy enough to earn a primary space on your keyboard?! And don’t get me started on not being able to long press to throw in a number or two. And where the hell is my swipe to type! It’s unacceptable! Almost as horrendous as still offering your base models in 16GB!
Notifications pull down (or pull up)
Notifications are a vital part of your device. The ability to ignore that cousin who sends 30 consecutive Whatsapp messages to convey one single idea is pretty darn useful. Apple’s updated Notification pull down is pretty sweet. The addition of the widgets, although limited, allows me to quickly check my schedule and reminders (something stock Android doesn’t offer) and keeps widgets off my homescreen. Swipe to the right and you’re greeted with your app-grouped notifications and the ability to ignore, reply or cancel them. Pull up from the bottom of the screen and you’re welcomed with a few handy shortcuts. Quick toggles switches, brightness, volume and sadly, 4 non-customizable quick apps. I really need there to be a settings shortcut so I don’t have to keep looking for that icon! All in all, I have to say Apple’s notification pulls checks my box on ease of use.
To sum it up, I already miss some Android features that I’ve gotten accustomed to on a day-to-day basis. The comma on my keyboard, the minimalist Homescreen and Apptray, and the ease of changing the wallpaper by long pressing the one I already have on. Yet packing so much power, crispiness, the updated iOS 9 and the mind-boggling speed of the Touch ID into a 4,7” device makes for a super fun and uncomplicated experience. Am I glad I switched to iOS from Android? Give me my goddamn Comma back and I’ll say gladly.
