Phone Wars

Seems like there’s a war raging. Not the ones in the Middle East, silly—I’m talking about the iOS / Android war. Apparently you have to pick a side—and then ruthlessly taunt the opposition for, say, copying features from your OS. Who knew smartphone OS’s could trigger more passion-vitriol-loyalty than sports teams?

I recently made the switch from an Apple to an Android phone. Not that I don’t like Apple, I’m a total fanboy—I have an Apple TV, MacBook Air, iPad, and have been on iPhone forever, it feels like (actually since 2010, so less than 5 years). So, why rock the boat? Doesn't the Apple ecosystem feel familiar and work seamlessly? 

In a word, money (okay, more than one word—also flexibility—I want to be able to choose the device I like regardless of whether it’s Android or iOS, so I’m also doing this in the hopes of setting up a data / app environment where I can switch between OS’s with minimal impact). Oh, and I want to be able to fit my phone in my pocket...

AT&T pushed back on my recent purchase of an iPhone 6+ and canceled my plan (read the small print!), pushing me on to one that cost $30 a month more. With a two-year contract, the price of the phone itself, and the additional one-time fees from AT&T, this meant that this new phone was going to cost me close to $1,500 (for the 128GB 6+)!!!

So I’m taking it back to the Apple Store and switching to a beautiful sandstone 5.5” OnePlus One, the new phone, from Chinese manufacturer OnePlus, which reportedly just reached a million units in sales via word of mouth alone. Smaller, lighter and more pleasing to the hand than the 6+, the One has the same size screen (5.5"). More importantly, if you’re lucky enough to get an invite, you can snag an unlocked 64GB One for under $400—so no contract.

I had always been curious about Android phones but was scared to try and untangle my digital life from Apple’s walled garden. Apple makes it so simple to clone my old iPhone over to my new one. Here’s how that transition is going:

1. -       Notes. I used Apple’s Notes app quite a bit over the years, for storing odd things like names of restaurants, shopping lists, and business ideas. It was easy to go through and delete all the old notes I didn’t need, and send the rest to Evernote. Done. Time: 45 minutes.
2. -       Music. For a while now I’ve pretty much only used the Spotify app for listening to music on my phone. Done, a simple install of the Android app. My iTunes library (huge) is all in the cloud now and there’s no iTunes for Android, so I’m leaving that music there. I’ll only be able to access it from my other Apple devices, no big deal to me but if you want to use this music on your phone I don’t see an easy way to get it, unless you have access to the library of mp3s, in which case it looks pretty simple to load in to an Android app. Time for me: 5 minutes.
3. -       Other Apps. pretty easy to locate an equivalent for most of the apps that I use regularly. Exceptions: Remote for Apple TV.  Time: About 1 hour to locate, install and sign in to them.
4. -       Notifications. I’m missing Apple’s lock screen ticker of app notifications. Not sure how to get this back in Cyanogen Mod, the operating system on the One, although I have used the Widgets feature to load email, calendar and stock ticker apps on to a series of screens available with a couple of swipes from the lock screen. Working on getting to a passive scrolling ticker as this was a great feature for staying vigilant for important messages with the iPhone!
5. -       Voice Memos. I have years of audio recordings in the form of voice memos on the iPhone. In theory these should be simple to sync over to iTunes but I haven’t figured out how to get them to actually transfer.  I see plenty of other users that have had the same problem online, but no solutions. I may just have to let these go—or get them back by resurrecting my backup whenever I move back to iPhone.
6. -       Camera. The 6+ has an incredible camera. This camera does not compare—especially to its ability to focus very quickly on action scenes and take a fantastic shot in the moment. See the below picture from a recent trip to Thailand as an example of the power of the iPhone 6+’s camera.
   
7. -       Pictures: I use iPhoto as the master storage for all my pictures. Fingers crossed, I can download easily from the new phone to the same iPhoto storage, even if the photos aren’t going to be quite as impressive.
8. -       New features. Some features work much better in Android—Google Now Launchpad, for example, gives me a level of “desktop” personalization that I’d never been able to get from my iPhone, with anticipated desires (e.g. online purchase shipping notifications; restaurant suggestions; commute times) all teed up for me on a left flick from the home screen. And I like having desktop widgets so I can get in to Frequently used apps without launching them, just flick to the right from my homescreen.
9. -       General user interface. I’ve figured out where everything is in the course of a few days and I am not at all unhappy with being on Android over iOS. The only real bummer is it feels like the UI has an infinitesimal lag that the iPhone didn’t, for example when scrolling a web page or Facebook / Instagram feed. The iPhone gave the illusion of physically moving the page around smoothly with your finger, an illusion that is just out of reach with the One.

All in all, an interesting experiment—at this early stage it feels like I might be back on iOS when the price for the current models drops, and the powerful 6+ camera is available, say, on the next generation of the regular-sized iPhone 6--probably in September with the 6S. But I think I’ll be pretty happy to use this device for the next year or so. And, who knows, with discoveries of new apps and features, I might decide I actually PREFER to be on Android…

N.B.: Completing this transition depends on the Apple Store giving me my cash back for my 6+. I have one week until the return period is up, and a couple of scratches on the phone. If they won’t take it back, I will have another week left to return the Plus.  Fingers crossed.