Figured I'd write a detailed experience of a member who was firmly sitting in the Apple Ecosystem converting to Android after 13 years.
I just realized I joined this group back in 2009. I had been using Blackberry since the first AOL Communicator all the way up to the Storm 2 when RIM tried to compete with the new iPhone. I was always on Verizon, and iPhone was only available on AT&T. The Storm sucked, and the new Droid was coming out with a sliding hardware keyboard. Best of both worlds, a touchscreen AND a hardware keyboard. I jumped around to different Android phones along with my iPod touch for music for years. Back then, there was always something missing from Android. It was laggy, buggy, and the hardware wasn't great. Apple released the iPhone 4 for Verizon, and I've been all in on Apple ever since. MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and Apple Watch Ultra 2.
A few years ago, when Samsung released a foldable phone, I loved that a brand finally came up with this. A phone that could fold out to become a tablet was such an incredible idea. Samsung made it better with every generation while all I would hear about Apple is rumors of them working on one, and maybe potential releases in 2 years every year. I saw some announcements a few weeks ago from Samsung on the Fold 6. YouTubers got early review units and posted videos, and I was finding my mind opening to converting. My local Verizon had a demo unit to play with, and I was messing around with it for 45 minutes. I preordered with a great price. My father's S21+, some discount codes from YouTube videos, incentives for storage and $50 for using the Samsung App. I figured I would give this an honest shot, try it out for a week, if it didn't work out, I'd go back to my iPhone. The funniest thing was people's responses when I told them I was switching. You'd had thought I told them I was pregnant.
I did a TON of research on setting it up and customizing while I waited. I received my Crafted Black Galaxy Z Fold 6 on Friday, almost a week earlier the promised. The first thing that impressed me was how solid this phone is. Nothing feels like it could be easily broken. The hinge is solid, and folding and unfolding is nice and firm. I don't feel like I have to be ridiculously careful with it. It has a good feeling in hand when folded, and well balanced when open. Turning it on for the first time, and setting it seemed like it would be pretty straightforward. I chose to migrate my data from my iPhone by cable using Smartswitch, and then I would transfer my music, epub ebooks, and movies over from my MacBook.
The first day was ROUGH. On initial setup, and transferring data, It showed it would take 3 hours to transfer the data over using the cable. When it was 90% done close to 3 hours later, the connection disconnected...AUGH. The good thing was all my apps were installed on the Fold. I saw contacts and calendar events loaded in and thought it was good to go, and maybe it actually did complete. I went to transfer my phone number over, attempted to use the Verizon app. There was a problem because my Apple Watch was attached to the account, so it removed my number from the iPhone, never added it to the Fold. When I called Verizon with my wife's phone, they said they needed to remove the watch, and I needed to confirm from the text message they sent. The problem was I had nothing that could receive that text. After an hour on the phone, the rep was able to manually override, and we got the number transferred.
Then, I realized soon after, only a portion of my contacts were in there, and half my calendar was gone. I had gotten some text messages, but didn't know who they were from because their contact info didn't transfer. I had turned off iMessage, and when I texted my cousin, he was receiving the texts, but I wasn't getting his. Apparently it could take a few hours for it to take. That was day 1, and I was really hoping this wasn't going to continue to go like this. That night, I started over this time I did the data transfer with my iPhone wirelessly using Smartswitch. This attempt showed it would take 2 hours. Once done, I was relieved to see everything completely transferred. Contact list was complete, all Calendar events showing. Win #1!. I then plugged it into my MacBook and transferred my music, movies, and ebooks, that also went smooth...win #2. It was time consuming and tedious to enter all my passwords, and customize the home screens how I wanted them. Everything was up and running by the end of the weekend, and I looked forward to just enjoying using it during the week.
Android has come a LONG way in 13 years. Everything is fast and snappy. No lag, not seeing bugginess, it works so much better. I love that I can customize the keyboards, the fonts, and so many areas of the UI. I have the front screen set up one way, and the large screen another. If there is a feature I enjoyed on my iPhone that Android doesn’t have by default or natively, I could find it in a setting customization or an app. The growing pains I anticipated are not nearly as difficult as I had anticipated. I walked in with an open mind determined to give this an honest go, and it is paying off. There is so much information and tips that answered questions I had, and friends that have been using Android for years helped me with quick questions. The first few days the battery life concerned me. Then it has improved dramatically giving me a full day with no problem. The camera is the only physical shortcoming, and the only thing I am really missing from it is the macro shots I was able to take with the iPhone. Shooting anything else has been comparable, but then I get the better experience having fun with the AI tools. The Samsung keyboard was incredibly frustrating. Autocorrect was awful, and there were many times it would correct what I was trying to type intentionally, I had to type it 3 times to get it to register. I downloaded the Google keyboard, and that has been great typing on both screens.
Android Auto has been great too once I figured a few things out. I have my entire music collection downloaded locally to the phone storage. I was initially frustrated using Galaxy music app on Android Auto, it allows me to choose an artist and then just plays. I like to choose the artist, then the album and play. I downloaded Poweramp which allows me to do that plus added further customization. Apple Music streams my collection as well, and kept my playlists, so I go back and forth. I wish Apple Music worked as a native player with my downloaded music rather than only streaming. One nice thing about Android Auto is my Honda Ridgeline system is Android based, so when using directions, it shows the turn by turn directions on my dashboard as well, CarPlay didn’t do that.
That’s my experience after week one, I know I wrote a lot here and hope that it helps someone considering switching from iPhone to Android curious how it would go.
I just realized I joined this group back in 2009. I had been using Blackberry since the first AOL Communicator all the way up to the Storm 2 when RIM tried to compete with the new iPhone. I was always on Verizon, and iPhone was only available on AT&T. The Storm sucked, and the new Droid was coming out with a sliding hardware keyboard. Best of both worlds, a touchscreen AND a hardware keyboard. I jumped around to different Android phones along with my iPod touch for music for years. Back then, there was always something missing from Android. It was laggy, buggy, and the hardware wasn't great. Apple released the iPhone 4 for Verizon, and I've been all in on Apple ever since. MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and Apple Watch Ultra 2.
A few years ago, when Samsung released a foldable phone, I loved that a brand finally came up with this. A phone that could fold out to become a tablet was such an incredible idea. Samsung made it better with every generation while all I would hear about Apple is rumors of them working on one, and maybe potential releases in 2 years every year. I saw some announcements a few weeks ago from Samsung on the Fold 6. YouTubers got early review units and posted videos, and I was finding my mind opening to converting. My local Verizon had a demo unit to play with, and I was messing around with it for 45 minutes. I preordered with a great price. My father's S21+, some discount codes from YouTube videos, incentives for storage and $50 for using the Samsung App. I figured I would give this an honest shot, try it out for a week, if it didn't work out, I'd go back to my iPhone. The funniest thing was people's responses when I told them I was switching. You'd had thought I told them I was pregnant.
I did a TON of research on setting it up and customizing while I waited. I received my Crafted Black Galaxy Z Fold 6 on Friday, almost a week earlier the promised. The first thing that impressed me was how solid this phone is. Nothing feels like it could be easily broken. The hinge is solid, and folding and unfolding is nice and firm. I don't feel like I have to be ridiculously careful with it. It has a good feeling in hand when folded, and well balanced when open. Turning it on for the first time, and setting it seemed like it would be pretty straightforward. I chose to migrate my data from my iPhone by cable using Smartswitch, and then I would transfer my music, epub ebooks, and movies over from my MacBook.
The first day was ROUGH. On initial setup, and transferring data, It showed it would take 3 hours to transfer the data over using the cable. When it was 90% done close to 3 hours later, the connection disconnected...AUGH. The good thing was all my apps were installed on the Fold. I saw contacts and calendar events loaded in and thought it was good to go, and maybe it actually did complete. I went to transfer my phone number over, attempted to use the Verizon app. There was a problem because my Apple Watch was attached to the account, so it removed my number from the iPhone, never added it to the Fold. When I called Verizon with my wife's phone, they said they needed to remove the watch, and I needed to confirm from the text message they sent. The problem was I had nothing that could receive that text. After an hour on the phone, the rep was able to manually override, and we got the number transferred.
Then, I realized soon after, only a portion of my contacts were in there, and half my calendar was gone. I had gotten some text messages, but didn't know who they were from because their contact info didn't transfer. I had turned off iMessage, and when I texted my cousin, he was receiving the texts, but I wasn't getting his. Apparently it could take a few hours for it to take. That was day 1, and I was really hoping this wasn't going to continue to go like this. That night, I started over this time I did the data transfer with my iPhone wirelessly using Smartswitch. This attempt showed it would take 2 hours. Once done, I was relieved to see everything completely transferred. Contact list was complete, all Calendar events showing. Win #1!. I then plugged it into my MacBook and transferred my music, movies, and ebooks, that also went smooth...win #2. It was time consuming and tedious to enter all my passwords, and customize the home screens how I wanted them. Everything was up and running by the end of the weekend, and I looked forward to just enjoying using it during the week.
Android has come a LONG way in 13 years. Everything is fast and snappy. No lag, not seeing bugginess, it works so much better. I love that I can customize the keyboards, the fonts, and so many areas of the UI. I have the front screen set up one way, and the large screen another. If there is a feature I enjoyed on my iPhone that Android doesn’t have by default or natively, I could find it in a setting customization or an app. The growing pains I anticipated are not nearly as difficult as I had anticipated. I walked in with an open mind determined to give this an honest go, and it is paying off. There is so much information and tips that answered questions I had, and friends that have been using Android for years helped me with quick questions. The first few days the battery life concerned me. Then it has improved dramatically giving me a full day with no problem. The camera is the only physical shortcoming, and the only thing I am really missing from it is the macro shots I was able to take with the iPhone. Shooting anything else has been comparable, but then I get the better experience having fun with the AI tools. The Samsung keyboard was incredibly frustrating. Autocorrect was awful, and there were many times it would correct what I was trying to type intentionally, I had to type it 3 times to get it to register. I downloaded the Google keyboard, and that has been great typing on both screens.
Android Auto has been great too once I figured a few things out. I have my entire music collection downloaded locally to the phone storage. I was initially frustrated using Galaxy music app on Android Auto, it allows me to choose an artist and then just plays. I like to choose the artist, then the album and play. I downloaded Poweramp which allows me to do that plus added further customization. Apple Music streams my collection as well, and kept my playlists, so I go back and forth. I wish Apple Music worked as a native player with my downloaded music rather than only streaming. One nice thing about Android Auto is my Honda Ridgeline system is Android based, so when using directions, it shows the turn by turn directions on my dashboard as well, CarPlay didn’t do that.
That’s my experience after week one, I know I wrote a lot here and hope that it helps someone considering switching from iPhone to Android curious how it would go.
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