I “started” out on smartphones with a jailbroken iPhone 3 and then moved through various Android phones (being burnt by a Google Nexus 6P), often rooting them for enhanced functionality, before I moved back to an iPhone 12 Pro. The reason I moved back to an iPhone were that it had really improved a lot with regards to allowing custom keyboards, browsers, now had real copy-and-paste, widgets, etc. I was finding that around 2020 it was no longer really necessary to root or jailbreak phones to get what you needed. Also my bank was restricting access for their app to non-rooted phones only, and Magisk was no longer cloaking the rooting very well.
Wanting an Apple Watch (to replace wearing a Fitbit and a smartwatch, and Android Wear watches were a bit dismal) meant basically needing an iPhone to setup the Watch and take full advantage of it, and I really do like the fact that iPhones get a good 7 years of software OS updates.
But coming from an Android world meant painfully realising that the Truecaller anti-spam app I used (and all others that I also tested over a year) has no control over the phone dialler so it is severely crippled, and seriously, Apple’s Shortcuts comes nowhere near what Tasker offers on Android. Luckily Airtags were launched and that solved one problem that Shortcuts could not do ie. notify me if I’d forgotten a WiFi connected device behind. Apart from having to rebuy a few apps, the iPhone has been really slick, well built, stable, and has a very good camera. The spam calls though have been getting to me, and the fact that some ham radio apps are not available for it.
So I decided about two weeks back to buy a cheap, good value for money, Android phone for the ham radio apps. The Samsung A13 is actually an incredible bargain at under R3,000 ZAR (about $172) with 4GB of RAM, 64 GB of storage with an SD card, dual SIM, radio, and a 5,000 mAh battery. It’s camera is noticeably not as good as the iPhone and also does not seamlessly zoom through the lenses. It is not close to the same league as the iPhone.
BUT it runs Tasker, it runs Truecaller oh so well with 3x the functionality that the iOS would allow, my Call Recorder apps work again so no need to carry around a PR-200 recorder around, the battery lasts for two real days of use, and I could remove the SIM from my mobile hotspot, and put this in the 2nd SIM slot so that I no longer have to carry a mobile hotspot around (all my other devices connect to the Samsung’s Mobile Hotspot, and Tasker automatically activates that when I leave home, and disables it when I return).
So whilst it can take OK photos, I would really take the iPhone out if I want to record really good photos. The difference is actually noticeable. Interestingly the Apple Watch works basically 100% as long as the iPhone sits at home with WiFi connectivity. The Watch connects to the WiFi hotspot on the Samsung phone and can do Walkie Talkie, iMessages, Apple Pay, etc and will sync Health data when I get home (if it is not doing it via WiFi). It also has NFC, which the Samsung does not have. What about the different phone number the iPhone now has? Well actually not a problem as iMessage etc all sync on your Apple ID and not the actual phone number, so my three iMessage contacts are oblivious really to the number change.
A bonus on the Samsung side was also to find that their software has really progressed with any app being able to go picture-in-a-picture mode, split screen, digital wellbeing, gestures, eye comfort, focus modes, nearby share, dual messenger profiles, and lots more. Phones are now getting good enough to be able to live with the lower end models. To be honest all I really get from paying 6x more is a way better camera and some more speed.
So when this Samsung is up for replacement I’m going to have a long hard think about what next. I’m really not sure I’ll be paying so much again for another iPhone. For that price I could by 6 of these Samsung A13’s. I’ll likely keep a “cheap” iPhone to supplement the Watch, but by then I may also give serious thought to what the Samsung or Pixel watch is doing.
For me it will come down to the camera, dual SIM now (don’t want to lug a mobile data hotspot around again), anti-spam phone call management, and pairing with a good health tracking Watch. For others the list may well be different. iMessage is “nice” but I have about 3% of the people I’m in regular contact with, who actually have it, so a vendor specific messenger is not a draw card for me.
It was Apple’s Watch that actually drew me back into Apple, but I’m now already finding the few limitations too stifling again. I can say the limitations are far fewer now, but Apple’s philosophy is one of control and quality, and that does jar a bit on me liking flexibility and features…
My next choice is probably due only in about 2 to 3 years time, and it will be an interesting month of studies, comparisons, and short-listings before I decide anything. But what I do know now, is I’m taking a slightly different approach. The two phone ecosystems are very similar in some regards, but also differ very fundamentally in others. It does often come down to the philosophy that fits best for each person.
PS: Sadly the real detail of the linked photo is a bit lost with compression and resizing, but take my word for it the colour and finer sharpness of the iPhone photo is better when you zoom into both images.
#technology #iOS #Android #Samsung #ecosystems