iPhone to Nexus 5X

What iphone does better: Podcasts. This is just a mess on android--I can't wait until Play music has built in podcast support.
I was struggling with podcasts for a while, but I've been using Pocket Casts lately, and it's pretty amazing. You may want to give it a go.

Battery life was better/more predictable on the iphone. I have to do some planning with the Nexus 5x if I'm gonna be out all day (such as turning off bluetooth, location services, and touch feedback to conserve battery life.
It's hard to beat the standby time for iOS devices, even with Android's new Doze feature. I'm sure as Google keeps working out the kinks, the battery life will be better than it is now.

Calender/contact syncing from the Mac was better on the iphone, but I'm getting used to Google versions.
It's hardly fair to compare syncing iOS calendar/contact with Mac to syncing Android with Mac. If you're using Google Calendar and Gmail contacts, there isn't actually anything to sync—it's all cloud-based. I'd recommend just ditching Contacts and iCal altogether and going full Google (fellow Mac user here, and that's what I do).

Image stabilization on the nexus 5x in video is BAD. I hope there's a fix for this at some point.
I think Google will bring various patches to the Camera app (they already have made some progress since the phone was released), but optical image stabilization is hardware-based, so I don't think software patches are going to fix that.

Last, I don't like that google didn't include a USB-C to USB-A cable, so I bought one from the play store $14. Not a huge deal, but USB-C is kind of a pain when all my adapters use other flavors of USB.
Yeah, it's a bit of a bummer. All my stuff is still old-school USB. I bought two adapters on Amazon.
 
I was struggling with podcasts for a while, but I've been using Pocket Casts lately, and it's pretty amazing. You may want to give it a go.

It's hard to beat the standby time for iOS devices, even with Android's new Doze feature. I'm sure as Google keeps working out the kinks, the battery life will be better than it is now.

It's hardly fair to compare syncing iOS calendar/contact with Mac to syncing Android with Mac. If you're using Google Calendar and Gmail contacts, there isn't actually anything to sync—it's all cloud-based. I'd recommend just ditching Contacts and iCal altogether and going full Google (fellow Mac user here, and that's what I do).

I think Google will bring various patches to the Camera app (they already have made some progress since the phone was released), but optical image stabilization is hardware-based, so I don't think software patches are going to fix that.

Yeah, it's a bit of a bummer. All my stuff is still old-school USB. I bought two adapters on Amazon.

Hey aysiu, good to see you on another forum besides Ubuntu. You may remember me as wolfen69 back in the day. ;) My nickname on ubuntu is now help_me2. But I don't post over there too much any more. Catch you around.
 
I'm a longtime Mac user (as in 30+ years, and an Apple IIe before that), and have been on various iPhones since the first one, most recently having used a 5S for the past 2 years. I dabbled in Android a few times, but recently got a 5X. What sent me over the edge was the Apple battery case (yeah, long story).

Anywho, I'm enjoying the 5X and Marshmallow. I have been trying different email apps since I live on that as well as Evernote. Our labs actually did cardboard before google did, so I've been knee-deep in VR/AR/MR for years now. Fun to play with those apps on the 5X.

As for 5S vs 5X, no clear answer unless you're completely invested in one ecosystem or the other. Interoperability has gotten to the point where there is a fair amount of parity and playing nice together. Even some of google's own apps to integrate that well. The biggest issue I have right now is bluetooth in the car - it just flat out doesn't work right with the 5x. I can do calls, but map directions cut off after half a second. Also, as much as I've criticized Siri over the years, for doing tasks (reading texts, etc) it is superior to ok google. Google is better at finding information retrieval.

If they continue to stomp bugs in Marshmallow it will be cool. Fun to mess with something that is a bit more tweak able than iOS. iCloud drive continues to be lame (has gotten better but slowly). But the two systems are more alike than different these days.