Is Android the best choice for a Mac user?

[petvas72]

Hi all, this is my first post here. I am an iPhone 5S owner and I am also a great Apple fan, so you might be wondering what I am doing here. I love technology and up until now I haven't have any experience with Android, so I would like to get to know it better and if it fits my needs, start using an Android device instead of my iPhone. The reasons I am even considering doing that are not that many, but I think after so many years with Apple I am a bit tired of iOS' limitations, even if I love the design.

Coming from an iPhone I can only consider one device to get, and that is the new HTC One M8, which at least comes very close in hardware quality with the iPhone (and some might argue that it's better). I have ordered a silver HTC One and it's coming tomorrow, so I have many many questions that I hope you can help me with.
I am a Mac user and I am not going to change that, since I love Apple products and OS X specially. I use lots of Apple services and products and I also do not intend to change that.
iTunes, iTunes Match, iCloud Keychain (for password sync), iCloud Tabs (for Safari), Reading List sync, iBooks, and almost anything that Apple has to offer, I use it. I also use Aperture for storing and managing my pictures.
For Cloud storage I use Dropbox mainly and OneDrive as a secondary storage. I also do not intend to use Google's services, apart from search and maybe maps.
I also use Exchange for mail, calendar, contacts and tasks. This is a very important feature for me..

So, this is my usage profile, so here come the questions:

• Does it even make sense considering Android if someone uses Apple's services so heavily? I mean I could live without using some of them on my phone, but I would still continue using them on my Macs..(FaceTime and iMessage would be the two services I could give up on my phone)
• What is the best way to sync my music to my HTC One? I have used Google Music to upload everything in the cloud. Do I just use it on my Android device to access my music? Will the music get stored locally or does it have to be streamed all the time?
• How can I sync my Aperture picture library with the HTC One? Exporting everything to folders and then syncing is understandably an option, but if there is anything better than that I would take it...
• How is support for Exchange on Android? I use Exchange for Mail, calendar, contacts and tasks. Do the stock apps support Exchange, or are there better 3rd party alternatives? I have seen that Android doesn't support natively syncing Exchange tasks. What is the best app for that?
• How is the quality of Android apps compared to the iPhone? I have heard bad things only..Should I worry about that?
• How fast is accessing a micro SD storage, compared to the internal native storage of the HTC One M8?
• Is there any way to sync iCloud Tabs? It's not that important and I could live without it on my Phone, but this is a nice to have feature.
• iBooks is also nice to have, but I can also use Kindle.
• What about the reading list of Safari? Is there any support for that?
• On iOS we have many great Twitter clients. How is the situation on Android? Is there anything good as Tweetbot?
• What is the best Journal app? On my Mac I use Day One, but I haven't found it on the Play store..I looked it up and the app is only on iOS and Mac available..
• I use OneNote for note taking, so how good is it? Does it integrate good in the OS?

I can honestly say that I am not that sure I won't be keeping my iPhone 5S (a truly great device), instead of the HTC One M8, but I am willing to give Android a chance, under the above assumptions and requirements.I believe that the HTC One M8 is the best Android device, especially for someone coming from the Apple world, where design and hardware quality is very important..I am also very curious to see how the big screen feels in the hand..I always applauded Apple for its small 4" design. In the meantime I want to test a bigger screen, just to see if big sized phones are ok to carry..
The mediocre HTC One camera worries me also, but I could live without it..

Thanks in advance for all your posts. Please remember, I am not here in order to discuss which OS is better, or which device, I am here because I love technology...

 

[terrabiped]

Does it even make sense considering Android if someone uses Apple's services so heavily?

I don't think so. Based on everything you said, I would have stuck with a iPhone.
Hopefully smarter people than me can answer your other questions. (That's A LOT of question in one post!)

 

[terrabiped]

What is the best Journal app? On my Mac I use Day One, but I haven't found it on the Play store..I looked it up and the app is only on iOS and Mac available..
I use OneNote for note taking, so how good is it? Does it integrate good in the OS?

I like Evernote. Journaling, note taking, whatever your want. And it's completely cross platform.

 

[SactoKingsFan]

It's been a while since I last used Apple devices, so I'll only be able to answer some of your questions.

(1) Google music manager is the easiest way to get access to your iTunes music. The music you select will be streamed through the Google music app.

You can also use the Easy Phone Tunes app if you want the songs stored on the M8.

(2) Exchange works fine on Android.

(3) Android apps have improved and are now very stable. I have 100+ apps and i haven't had any issues.

(4) Haven't experienced any speed issues with accessing external SD card on my S3, so it should be fine on M8.

Sent from my G2 running PAC-ROM

 

[Vsweety]

I use lots of Apple services and products and I also do not intend to change that.

Android expects its users to think for themselves more than Apple expects its users to. Apple's approach ? simplicity in a walled garden ? apparently hits your spot. So I think Android's strategy will not 'grab' you.
Some prefer coffee, some prefer tea.

 

[petvas72]

Android expects its users to think for themselves more than Apple expects its users to. Apple's approach – simplicity in a walled garden – apparently hits your spot. So I think Android's strategy will not 'grab' you.
Some prefer coffee, some prefer tea.

I think about whats best for my needs, so as I wrote before, I am a Mac user primarily. Integration is important. I don't use all services of Apple. iCloud Mail doesn't cover my needs, so I use Exchange for example. iTunes does cover my needs, so I use it. Android isn't bound to any desktop OS, so I would expect good, native software for all major desktop OSes to sync stuff. (even as 3rd party).
Google music looks good, so I used it to get my music in the cloud..Todas I am getting the HTC One, so I am really excited to see how I feel about it.

 

[petvas72]

I don't think so. Based on everything you said, I would have stuck with a iPhone.
Hopefully smarter people than me can answer your other questions. (That's A LOT of question in one post!)

I haven't decided to leave iOS. I just want to test Android and see what the differences are. I don't want to be a blind fanboy, despite my love for Apple and its products. I am an IT Pro and don't fell into the category of standard consumers. I am prepared to do the extra configuration if needed. Of course simplicity is very much appreciated, but I like to do more advanced stuff with my devices..
In a couple of hours I will get the HTC One and start playing with it. At the end of the week I will make my decision which one of the devices to keep. Of course I do not expect that the Android device will have the same integration with Apple services, but I expect a reasonable integration (music and photo syncing for example). iCloud keychain is nice to have but not a must, iCloud tabs also (I could use Chrome tabs), iMessage is a problem (but not unsolvable), FaceTime also (but I can use Skype).
I am prepared to make these compromises if the overall experience is better. I am a bit worried that the screen will be too big for my small hands, but on the other side having a big screen has its advantages. I am trying to be a bit more objective here and I will post my findings on this thread.
Of course I still have the Apple glasses on, since I live in the Apple ecosystem, as my main computing devices are all Macs. I believe the HTC One M8 to be the best Android device you can get (apart from the mediocre camera), so I am excited..

 

[petvas72]

It's been a while since I last used Apple devices, so I'll only be able to answer some of your questions.

(1) Google music manager is the easiest way to get access to your iTunes music. The music you select will be streamed through the Google music app.

You can also use the Easy Phone Tunes app if you want the songs stored on the M8.

(2) Exchange works fine on Android.

(3) Android apps have improved and are now very stable. I have 100+ apps and i haven't had any issues.

(4) Haven't experienced any speed issues with accessing external SD card on my S3, so it should be fine on M8.

Sent from my G2 running PAC-ROM

Even tasks sync when using Exchange or is a 3rd party app required?

Google music manager doesn't sync scores and dynamic playlists, but this is not a big issue.

 

[SactoKingsFan]

Even tasks sync when using Exchange or is a 3rd party app required?

Google music manager doesn't sync scores and dynamic playlists, but this is not a big issue.

You'll need a 3rd party app. Tasks and notes for Exchange works well.

Sent from my G2 running PAC-ROM

 

[Golfdriver97]

Hi all, this is my first post here. I am an iPhone 5S owner and I am also a great Apple fan, so you might be wondering what I am doing here. I love technology and up until now I haven't have any experience with Android, so I would like to get to know it better and if it fits my needs, start using an Android device instead of my iPhone. The reasons I am even considering doing that are not that many, but I think after so many years with Apple I am a bit tired of iOS' limitations, even if I love the design.

Coming from an iPhone I can only consider one device to get, and that is the new HTC One M8, which at least comes very close in hardware quality with the iPhone (and some might argue that it's better). I have ordered a silver HTC One and it's coming tomorrow, so I have many many questions that I hope you can help me with.
I am a Mac user and I am not going to change that, since I love Apple products and OS X specially. I use lots of Apple services and products and I also do not intend to change that.
iTunes, iTunes Match, iCloud Keychain (for password sync), iCloud Tabs (for Safari), Reading List sync, iBooks, and almost anything that Apple has to offer, I use it. I also use Aperture for storing and managing my pictures.
For Cloud storage I use Dropbox mainly and OneDrive as a secondary storage. I also do not intend to use Google's services, apart from search and maybe maps.
I also use Exchange for mail, calendar, contacts and tasks. This is a very important feature for me..

So, this is my usage profile, so here come the questions:

• Does it even make sense considering Android if someone uses Apple's services so heavily? I mean I could live without using some of them on my phone, but I would still continue using them on my Macs..(FaceTime and iMessage would be the two services I could give up on my phone)
• What is the best way to sync my music to my HTC One? I have used Google Music to upload everything in the cloud. Do I just use it on my Android device to access my music? Will the music get stored locally or does it have to be streamed all the time?
• How can I sync my Aperture picture library with the HTC One? Exporting everything to folders and then syncing is understandably an option, but if there is anything better than that I would take it...
• How is support for Exchange on Android? I use Exchange for Mail, calendar, contacts and tasks. Do the stock apps support Exchange, or are there better 3rd party alternatives? I have seen that Android doesn't support natively syncing Exchange tasks. What is the best app for that?
• How is the quality of Android apps compared to the iPhone? I have heard bad things only..Should I worry about that?
• How fast is accessing a micro SD storage, compared to the internal native storage of the HTC One M8?
• Is there any way to sync iCloud Tabs? It's not that important and I could live without it on my Phone, but this is a nice to have feature.
• iBooks is also nice to have, but I can also use Kindle.
• What about the reading list of Safari? Is there any support for that?
• On iOS we have many great Twitter clients. How is the situation on Android? Is there anything good as Tweetbot?
• What is the best Journal app? On my Mac I use Day One, but I haven't found it on the Play store..I looked it up and the app is only on iOS and Mac available..
• I use OneNote for note taking, so how good is it? Does it integrate good in the OS?

I can honestly say that I am not that sure I won't be keeping my iPhone 5S (a truly great device), instead of the HTC One M8, but I am willing to give Android a chance, under the above assumptions and requirements.I believe that the HTC One M8 is the best Android device, especially for someone coming from the Apple world, where design and hardware quality is very important..I am also very curious to see how the big screen feels in the hand..I always applauded Apple for its small 4" design. In the meantime I want to test a bigger screen, just to see if big sized phones are ok to carry..
The mediocre HTC One camera worries me also, but I could live without it..

Thanks in advance for all your posts. Please remember, I am not here in order to discuss which OS is better, or which device, I am here because I love technology...

Welcome to the forums, and Android!!
I will try to go through your questions one at a time and answer if I can.

1. The only way to know is to try. Who knows, you might like some stuff and hate others.
2. Since you have used Google Music to upload everything, All you need is the Play Music app, which will be on the phone once you power it on, and stream/pin away.
3. Unknown
4. Unknown.
5. From what I understand, apps crash less on Android than they do on Apple.
Study shows iOS apps crash more than Android — Tech News and Analysis
6. Slower. Internal is faster than SD cards, but with the higher classed ones, not by much. The down side to SD cards is they can fail without notice. Not saying don't get one, just be aware to not put anything on it that you don't have at least one copy of already somewhere else.
7. I am not sure.
8. Google has their own version as well. But if you are a heavy Amazon user, there are Kindle apps on Play.
9. I don't understand the reading list in Safari. Could you elaborate, please?
10. I think so. I don't really use much for social media.
11. I am sure there is a replacement. Question is: how polished does it look, but above all is it functional?
12. Try Google Keep. Awesome and simple.

Hope that helped. Again, welcome to the forums. Hope to see you soon.

 

[petvas72]

Hi all,

Today I got my HTC One M8 (silver) and I have been playing with it the whole day

I would like to post my first impressions. Please remember, I have been using iPhones since the beginning, but before that I had Windows Mobile devices for as long as I can remember..

I work as a Microsoft IT Pro, so I am not a typical consumer that doesn't care to understand something very technical..

When I got the device my first impression was wow, is that a huge device!! Coming from a 4" iPhone this was a shock. The big screen has advantages and disadvantages.
I turned on the device and after a relatively long boot time (more than two minutes - this is something that the iPhone does better), I went through the setup wizard of HTC. This wizard is ok but lacks polish. I configured my Exchange account and to my surprise I found that HTC supports Exchange Tasks out of the box. The device started syncing my almost 3GB mailbox (I choose to have all mails with me, as I did with my iPhone). Syncing didn't work very well for mail. After 5 or 6 hours I decided that it is not very reliable. Of course I know that most people would choose to sync much less data and in that case sync would be better..
The mail client was my first negative experience. The way it renders html mails is just bad. I compared the same mails with my iPhone and the iPhone was better all the time. Despite the smaller screen I didn't have to scroll right to see the whole mail, something that I had to do on the HTC One. Anyway, on Android changing the mail client is not a problem. On the iPhone that would be a big issue, since I cannot change the default apps..Of course, this kind of user experience is bad for normal consumers and HTC/Google should really work on improving their mail clients...
After a bit of a research I downloaded Touchdown, which worked great, much better than I ever dreamed of! It supports all features of Exchange, including categories, rules, S/MIME security, etc..I was amazed by it! I bought a license immediately and was excited by the widgets, which I installed immediately.
Having widgets for the first time was like a breath of fresh air! I configured 5 pages, on the main page I have the standard time/weather widget, google, plus some apps I need to quickly access. On the second page I have all my Exchange widgets, on the third my social network feeds and on the rest pages I have apps grouped in folders.
I already had Google Music sync my iTunes library, but to be honest I need my dynamic playlists and they don't synchronize. I bought iSyncr and used it to sync all of my music to an SD card. It worked great. Actually I was very much impressed by the real time multitasking that Android has. I was copying 13,000 songs, synchronizing 3GB of Exchange mailbox, installing apps all the time and browsing the web, and the device never slowed down a bit. Really impressive!
Surfing the web isn't as good as with Safari on iOS. Reader Mode is missing, and that makes many websites difficult to read, even on this big display.. I will try to find a solution for this problem. I use Chrome on the HTC to surf, and apart from that it worked very well. My bookmarks were already there, since I synchronize them through desktop Safari on my Macs..
So, up until now we have music, bookmarks and mail covered, but what about my pictures? Well, this is the biggest disappointment so far. As a Mac user I would expect as a minimum support for iPhoto and Aperture, but unfortunately this is not possible. Even using double twist (which I also purchased) doesn't help. Syncing pictures is a big pain up the $$$$
Imagine having a novice user, a typical consumer with his Mac, buying an Android device and trying to copy his albums on his new smartphone. A nightmare! Anyway, I downloaded Picasa, exported my 12,000 pictures on my hard drive, imported them in Picasa and enabled Google+ automatic sync...Now, every time I import pictures to Aperture, I need to export them also on the hard drive, so that Picasa picks them up and uploads them on google+. Really bad! This is an area where I would appreciate your thoughts, or solutions.
I do not intend to stop using Aperture on my Mac, it's out of the question.
The gestures used to turn on the device are great and the news feed is also nice (Blinkfeed I think it's the name).

For twitter I downloaded the official app and Tweetcaster, which looks nice, but I have to check more tomorrow.
I downloaded OneNote and I was glad to see that it also offers a widget to quickly create a new note. I am not used to that stuff!

The device itself is really nice, the quality matches the iPhone and I really liked it. It is really tall and twice it almost slipped my hands. I need to get used to it. I believe a 4,7" size would be better.
Tonight I found AirDroid and was so impressed about it! I can manage my Android device remotely from the Internet, copy files, and basically do whatever I want. Amazing!
I also downloaded MPlayer Pro and even watched an mkv tv series. Very nice!

So, to summarize my first day with an Android device, I would like to point out the positive and negative stuff:

Positive

• Multitasking
• Widgets are great
• The Touchdown Exchange client is amazing and well worth the money
• The fact that I can change default apps is great.
• The display is amazing
• Unlocking the device by using my live image is cool
• Notifications are so much better on Android than on iOS. I enjoyed a chat session on Facebook today with a friend. The way it works you cannot have it on iOS.
• Amazing ways to configure and control the device

Negative

• Syncing from iPhoto/Aperture doesn't work at all. Unacceptable for a consumer perspective. Google should understand at some point that people with Macs use iPhoto or Aperture (and some use Lightroom). very few use Picasa!
• The OS is not as polished as iOS. This can have an impact to consumers, which see better graphics, more polished apps (very often but not always).
• Android is not consumer friendly. Lots of customization options are geared towards power users.
• Chrome is not as good as Safari on iOS.
• No standard podcast app (but plenty available to download)
• No way to disable the Sense UI (without rooting). Actually it's a bit sad that Google allows skinning the UI.
• The standard mail, calendar and tasks clients are mediocre. The iPhone provides a much better out of the box experience.
• The out of the box experience for consumers is much better on the iPhone. People that want to research and take some time to get to know Android will appreciate it though.
• No iMessage, no FaceTime (but I was expecting that)
• I would like more internal storage. I also have a 32GB SD, but it would be better if I had this storage internally.

So, where does this leave me? Am I going to jump ship and move to Android? Maybe! I still need to think about it, but I think I might as well do that..
I hope I didn't tire you with another long post!

 

[Golfdriver97]

Hi all,

Today I got my HTC One M8 (silver) and I have been playing with it the whole day

I would like to post my first impressions. Please remember, I have been using iPhones since the beginning, but before that I had Windows Mobile devices for as long as I can remember..

I work as a Microsoft IT Pro, so I am not a typical consumer that doesn't care to understand something very technical..

When I got the device my first impression was wow, is that a huge device!! Coming from a 4" iPhone this was a shock. The big screen has advantages and disadvantages.
I turned on the device and after a relatively long boot time (more than two minutes - this is something that the iPhone does better), I went through the setup wizard of HTC. This wizard is ok but lacks polish. I configured my Exchange account and to my surprise I found that HTC supports Exchange Tasks out of the box. The device started syncing my almost 3GB mailbox (I choose to have all mails with me, as I did with my iPhone). Syncing didn't work very well for mail. After 5 or 6 hours I decided that it is not very reliable. Of course I know that most people would choose to sync much less data and in that case sync would be better..
The mail client was my first negative experience. The way it renders html mails is just bad. I compared the same mails with my iPhone and the iPhone was better all the time. Despite the smaller screen I didn't have to scroll right to see the whole mail, something that I had to do on the HTC One. Anyway, on Android changing the mail client is not a problem. On the iPhone that would be a big issue, since I cannot change the default apps..Of course, this kind of user experience is bad for normal consumers and HTC/Google should really work on improving their mail clients...
After a bit of a research I downloaded Touchdown, which worked great, much better than I ever dreamed of! It supports all features of Exchange, including categories, rules, S/MIME security, etc..I was amazed by it! I bought a license immediately and was excited by the widgets, which I installed immediately.
Having widgets for the first time was like a breath of fresh air! I configured 5 pages, on the main page I have the standard time/weather widget, google, plus some apps I need to quickly access. On the second page I have all my Exchange widgets, on the third my social network feeds and on the rest pages I have apps grouped in folders.
I already had Google Music sync my iTunes library, but to be honest I need my dynamic playlists and they don't synchronize. I bought iSyncr and used it to sync all of my music to an SD card. It worked great. Actually I was very much impressed by the real time multitasking that Android has. I was copying 13,000 songs, synchronizing 3GB of Exchange mailbox, installing apps all the time and browsing the web, and the device never slowed down a bit. Really impressive!
Surfing the web isn't as good as with Safari on iOS. Reader Mode is missing, and that makes many websites difficult to read, even on this big display.. I will try to find a solution for this problem. I use Chrome on the HTC to surf, and apart from that it worked very well. My bookmarks were already there, since I synchronize them through desktop Safari on my Macs..
So, up until now we have music, bookmarks and mail covered, but what about my pictures? Well, this is the biggest disappointment so far. As a Mac user I would expect as a minimum support for iPhoto and Aperture, but unfortunately this is not possible. Even using double twist (which I also purchased) doesn't help. Syncing pictures is a big pain up the $$$$
Imagine having a novice user, a typical consumer with his Mac, buying an Android device and trying to copy his albums on his new smartphone. A nightmare! Anyway, I downloaded Picasa, exported my 12,000 pictures on my hard drive, imported them in Picasa and enabled Google+ automatic sync...Now, every time I import pictures to Aperture, I need to export them also on the hard drive, so that Picasa picks them up and uploads them on google+. Really bad! This is an area where I would appreciate your thoughts, or solutions.
I do not intend to stop using Aperture on my Mac, it's out of the question.
The gestures used to turn on the device are great and the news feed is also nice (Blinkfeed I think it's the name).

For twitter I downloaded the official app and Tweetcaster, which looks nice, but I have to check more tomorrow.
I downloaded OneNote and I was glad to see that it also offers a widget to quickly create a new note. I am not used to that stuff!

The device itself is really nice, the quality matches the iPhone and I really liked it. It is really tall and twice it almost slipped my hands. I need to get used to it. I believe a 4,7" size would be better.
Tonight I found AirDroid and was so impressed about it! I can manage my Android device remotely from the Internet, copy files, and basically do whatever I want. Amazing!
I also downloaded MPlayer Pro and even watched an mkv tv series. Very nice!

So, to summarize my first day with an Android device, I would like to point out the positive and negative stuff:

Positive

• Multitasking
• Widgets are great
• The Touchdown Exchange client is amazing and well worth the money
• The fact that I can change default apps is great.
• The display is amazing
• Unlocking the device by using my live image is cool
• Notifications are so much better on Android than on iOS. I enjoyed a chat session on Facebook today with a friend. The way it works you cannot have it on iOS.
• Amazing ways to configure and control the device

Negative

• Syncing from iPhoto/Aperture doesn't work at all. Unacceptable for a consumer perspective. Google should understand at some point that people with Macs use iPhoto or Aperture (and some use Lightroom). very few use Picasa!
• The OS is not as polished as iOS. This can have an impact to consumers, which see better graphics, more polished apps (very often but not always).
• Android is not consumer friendly. Lots of customization options are geared towards power users.
• Chrome is not as good as Safari on iOS.
• No standard podcast app (but plenty available to download)
• No way to disable the Sense UI (without rooting). Actually it's a bit sad that Google allows skinning the UI.
• The standard mail, calendar and tasks clients are mediocre. The iPhone provides a much better out of the box experience.
• The out of the box experience for consumers is much better on the iPhone. People that want to research and take some time to get to know Android will appreciate it though.
• No iMessage, no FaceTime (but I was expecting that)
• I would like more internal storage. I also have a 32GB SD, but it would be better if I had this storage internally.

So, where does this leave me? Am I going to jump ship and move to Android? Maybe! I still need to think about it, but I think I might as well do that..
I hope I didn't tire you with another long post!

UI skins are bad for several other reasons. They typically bog down the OS, and can make helping out with an issue over a forum a little more troubling. Example, HTC sets up the settings menu a little different from Google, and Samsung is in a different playing field.

Overall, you take the good with the bad. While Apple is a closed source Platform, Android can be modified (with exception to Google apps) to someone's content and loaded as a custom ROM.

Give it some more time. I think you will have a good opinion in a few more days.

From a Liquid Nexus 5

 

[TheMacs]

Wow, love the depth, petvas. Well put together as also.

I am sure you've done your research, but there are numerous browser alternatives that may be more to your liking (Opera and Dolphin are two).

My one big suggestion would be to allow as much time as possible to review. A couple days on Android, after years on iOS is simply not long enough.

Good luck and welcome to the other side!

 

[terrabiped]

• Android is not consumer friendly. Lots of customization options are geared towards power users.

As someone new to smartphones and android, this is my impression too. There are way too many friggin settings buried everywhere! I feel like I have to become a power user just to figure out how to get my battery to last a day. Why isn't long battery life the default setting? And all the android heads keep talking about rooting their device and making all these custom hacks. Seriously?

I wish there was a way to test drive an iphone for a week to see what life is like in the other camp. But, it's really not practical for me to buy one and activate it just to test drive it.

Good luck with your experiment.

 

[petvas72]

As someone new to smartphones and android, this is my impression too. There are way too many friggin settings buried everywhere! I feel like I have to become a power user just to figure out how to get my battery to last a day. Why isn't long battery life the default setting? And all the android heads keep talking about rooting their device and making all these custom hacks. Seriously?

I wish there was a way to test drive an iphone for a week to see what life is like in the other camp. But, it's really not practical for me to buy one and activate it just to test drive it.

Good luck with your experiment.

This is exactly what I am talking about. iOS is for people that don't want to bother optimizing their device. It provides optimal default settings and it works. If you want to do more though, your are stuck with an OS that doesn't allow customization (unless you jailbreak of course).
This is my second day with the HTC One M8 and I am still discovering things. I disabled the HTC launcher and downloaded the Google Now launcher, which I also much prefer. Yes, it is more work to keep a device working ok, but for a power user this is not an issue, on the contrary.
I will sell my iPhone and iPad Air. I have even decided to get a small Android tablet. Any suggestions for me? Nexus 7? Is there anything better? (no Samsung please - I don't like their philosophy)

 

[TheMacs]

I have the Nexus 7 too, and it's very nice. You'll most likely be very pleased. Only my opinion, but I think it's still the best midsze Android device out there. But it is 2014, a newer/better model can't be far away.

You'll probably be discovering things for quite a while. I know I was.

Enjoy!

 

[SactoKingsFan]

The Nexus 7 is one of the best small Android tablets.

The Kindle Fire HDX 7 and LG G Pad are also good options.

Sent from my G2 running PAC-ROM

 

[petvas72]

The Nexus 7 is one of the best small Android tablets.

The Kindle Fire HDX 7 and LG G Pad are also good options.

Sent from my G2 running PAC-ROM

Thanks, I ordered the Nexus 7. I am just worried a bit about the quality of its materials..I am used to having iPads and iPhones and I appreciate top hardware quality.

 

[TheodoreWagner]

You don't have to feel singled out because you didn't go the way of the iPhone. It's okay that you made this choice--Mac|Life supports your decision to side with Google in the mobile wars (well, at least until your contract is up...um, right? Kidding!). And while you may already be privy to all the popular, cross platform apps like Evernote, Meebo and the official Yelp app, there are a select few other Android apps there that can make your experience a little more Mac-like, without the need to sacrifice your open source loving ways.

 

[DCSholtis]

I'm a Mac user as well. 2 MacBooks and an IMac. Came over from an iPhone 4. Couldn't be happier with my Android phone.

Posted via Android Central App