Bought The Note 7 After Being A Loyal iPhone User For Years... Here Are My Thoughts

[Bartone]

So I've never had an Android before; the Note 7 is first. My last phone was the iPhone 6 and I've always been die hard Apple fan that would never consider an Android phone because, well, iPhones are iPhones. The Note 7 stuck out me so much that I felt it was a phone worthy enough to finally make the switch and I'll tell you... I'm extremely happy with this phone. I wanted to break down the differences I found with regards to Pro's and Con's.

First off I want say that the iPhones are definitely more smooth and fluid, the whole "Lagdroid" thing is slightly true but not really to the point of annoyance. After playing Pokemon Go on both phones my iPhone 6 definitely gave me a more smooth and speedy experience (and that phone is two years old). Games with intense graphics also seem smoother on the iPhone. Also, IOS seems more intuitive and less complicated than Android.

Now before I get bashed by all the Samsung fans for my comments above I want to give some major kudos to my new phone. The display blows any iPhone out of the water... Me and my friends were watching the fight last night at Boston Pizza and I showed them a quad hd nature video and they were amazed and just wanted to stare at my display instead of watch the fight. The edge display doesn't have much practical use but damn does it sure look good. The bezels on the IPhone look like a cheap picture frame. I also loved how much freedom I have over everything and I don't have use iTunes to get music on my phone. After using Apple for so long I now feel like I got out of mobile device prison. I also love the Google play store, which is surprising because I always heard about how the App Store for iPhone was way better but I was able to re-download all the apps I had on my iPhone and the downloading was really fast.

In conclusion? I found iPhones are more fluid and faster (I never had the iPhone 6s Plus but I would bet it would beat my phone in a speed test). I also feel IOS is more intuitive and easier to use. My Note 7's display however blows the iPhone display out of the water by a large margin. The freedom I have is wonderful as well. At the end of the day what phone you want is up to you, but this Note 7 feels like a huge upgrade from my iPhone 6, and I'm really happy with my new purchase. Unless Apple does something crazy for the iPhone's 10th anniversary next year, I may stick with Samsung for a while.

Do you guys agree with my comparison? Feel free to discuss

 

[rxghost115]

actually the note 7 CAN be just as fluid as the iPhone. What you have to do is get rid of all bloatware and a bunch of useless stock apps with a bloatware disabler app on the play store, and get nova prime. Turn off sync too for a lot of useless ****, and replace stock apps with those off the play store which are more efficient. Clear cache, restart... and bam.. all good to go.

 

[dsignori]

Congrats, it sounds like you made a good choice. Sounds like a rational comparison of the phones as well. I think you will find over time that the Note 7 will be very smooth. Give it some time. Good luck!

 

[robber]

My only comment would be re intuitiveness. I have always use android phones, and have always used iPads. They definitely do things differently, but I would not say that one is more intuitive than the other. I would agree, that ios is a much simpler os, which is also good and bad.

You probably just need a few more days to adjust before the note feels "intuitive" to you. A good example is notification settings being centralized in ios, while they sit in the actual app on Android. Both make sense.

 

[archer75]

Iphones are smoother overall and their gpu's are significantly better than any Android gpu so gaming is better while also using less battery.
Android gives you more freedom though with each ios release apple is opening up more of the os to developers.

 

[stmax]

A couple things... How do you go back on iOS? On an Android you hit the back button. To me that is intuititve.

Also a note re fluidity. Perhaps there is a point when comparing games but don't mistake the animation dipsy doodle swooshes and spinoramas that happen when you tap something from the home screen as fluidity.

I use an Android for everything but we use an iPad at work. I would rather experience the fraction of a second pop to get the next app open than the screen doing it's fancy pants animations masking the fact that it is lagging by showing you a little show. It also gets tiring after a while.

 

[dseiden]

I have been using both Android and iOS and have to say they both have advantages and disadvantages. For some time I would have one for home and one as my business phone. It has always served me well as I was blue to play with custom roms on my work phone and had my personal phone for all the fun social media apps etc.

Recently it seems that Apple has lost the edge they had a few years back in the design area. Samsung and other manufacturers are passing them by with better hardware and my friends who are iOS die hards have been looking over the fence more and more.

The Note 7 is the device I feel that will get many hard core iOS fans to take a second look at Android many like Bartone will make the jump and never look back. I can not imagine Apple doing anything drastic to up their design game.

I still love my iPhone but I am using my Android device (now the note 7) more than my iphone and it feels good.

 

[spasell]

I just switched from 6s+ so it's a short bit but my observations mirror yours to some degree.

Screen blows away the iPhone. Not even close. Camera as well although closer. I took some photos of my kids with us and it's night and day.

I owned a Note 5 prior to iPhone. The reason I switched was battery life. I got 2 or 3 more hours on my iPhone 6+ doing the exact same things and using the same apps.

It's still early but I'm seeing the same thing with my Note 7. I'll give it 2 weeks because I spent so much time setting it up and using it. On average since Friday AM when I received it I'm getting 8 to 10 hours with 3 to 3.5 SOT.

I don't like the weak speaker on the Note 7 at all. Watching a few videos there's no comparison as the iPhone blows it away.

My cell signal is also much weaker on my Note and that was the same on the Note 5. Once I realized that I remembered some of the reasons I made the move from the Note 5.

I just love the spen so much. I take a lot of notes for work so this is by far the best feature for me. Also the Gmail, Google experience is far better on the Note but I'd expect that.

I'm enjoying my Note and especially missed the notification light for emails and other notifications.

And for some reason I cannot get my BT to work with my BMW X3 to talk in my car. That is very frustrating.

 

[Stealthieone]

actually the note 7 CAN be just as fluid as the iPhone. What you have to do is get rid of all bloatware and a bunch of useless stock apps with a bloatware disabler app on the play store, and get nova prime. Turn off sync too for a lot of useless ****, and replace stock apps with those off the play store which are more efficient. Clear cache, restart... and bam.. all good to go.

Which bloatware disabler app?

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[furby23]

A couple things... How do you go back on iOS? On an Android you hit the back button. To me that is intuititve.

Also a note re fluidity. Perhaps there is a point when comparing games but don't mistake the animation dipsy doodle swooshes and spinoramas that happen when you tap something from the home screen as fluidity.

I use an Android for everything but we use an iPad at work. I would rather experience the fraction of a second pop to get the next app open than the screen doing it's fancy pants animations masking the fact that it is lagging by showing you a little show. It also gets tiring after a while.

on iphones you just swipe the screen to go back lol. much more intuitive than a button

 

[AhemThisGuy]

I also switched from the IPhone 6 Plus to the Note 7.

 

[MizWylie]

Which bloatware disabler app?

Posted via the Android Central App

Package Disabler Pro, yo!

Posted from the N7 Dolphin Tears™ on Big Red

 

[stmax]

on iphones you just swipe the screen to go back lol. much more intuitive than a button

Shows you what you are used to

 

[archer75]

on iphones you just swipe the screen to go back lol. much more intuitive than a button

That only works on some things

 

[xxaarraa]

I used to be an iphone user for many years, then got so tired of the iphone 5 that I switched to android in 2012 and never looked back.... till the iphone SE. But the Note 7 brought me back from the darkness. I agree, iphones are snappy and lag free, most androids are not, particularly samsungs.

But iphones are 3 years behind on the hardware front. No class-leading cameras, no MST pay, no wireless charging, no waterproofing, no quad HD screen, poor screen to overall size ratio, no AOD. I suppose you can add no iris scanner to that list now. Very little reason to buy iphones anymore, I sense another blackberry-ish decline into oblivion which would be sad, but that seems to be the way its headed, especially with all the rumors about the iphone 7 pointing to extreme lameness. Unknown Chinese manufacturers have better hardware than iphones for $200 or below these days. That's the extent of apple's decline on the hardware front.

 

[Erik Read]

i too just moved from iPhone 6s+ to the Note 7. My first day or so was confusing. I kept launching the camera when I wanted to get recent apps. Battery sucked on the Note 7 until I deleted a music app I had bought. As I get used to the differences and the almost infinite ways I can change things around I like the Note 7 better and better.

 

[polbit]

I'll second the comments about fluidity (former 6S Plus user), but the added customization and power is winning me over. A definite difference though.

I never complained about the 6S Plus screen, but the single, most stand out feature on the 7 is the screen to me. It is simply amazing, and while I don't use any Edge stuff, the size and look make the iPhone look like some 90s relic.

 

[Doug Moffat]

I am baffled by the bezels on the iPhone. That and the lack of a back button.

 

[soldier45]

Good choice, have had every Note since release every year and this is by far the most refined and even better screen than my Note 5 can tell the difference. Also I bet the Iphone can't manage this....

 

[bhatech]

Hardware wise Note 7 is way ahead of the current iPhones and may be even the upcoming iPhone 7 based on rumors (will know soon).

On the lag, stutter or whatever we classify it as, I agree that scrolling and other UI interactions are smoother and much better on iPhone but not like way better. I have started to see frequent stutters on some animations in 6s plus. As iOS is adding more and more features I'm seeing to see some of these creeping up there as well. I pretty much use and used all flagships from Nexus to all different OEMs and got to give iOS slight edge on smooth and less lag experience. But boy they have a lot of catching to do in lots of other aspects and especially hardware which is surprising because they were once considered leaders in that department.