What phone you use as your daily driver? And, a discussion of them.

[The N]

Using Huawei Honor 7x for 6 years now. It's my 24/7 phone but shwoing its age as 3GB RAM and 32GB storage is outdated now. Practically, it has been showing slowed down processes and during normal social media scrolling it stutters a lot.

Time for serious upgrade, probably a good Samsung phone.

 

[gffermari]

I had an iPhone 8 since the medieval times. The microphone, the speaker, the NFC module broke down while I changed the battery 4 times.
Never had issues with the software or anything.

Because I couldn't/didn't have time/not worth it to fix all the issues above, I decided to try an Android phone. Went for Xiaomi 15 Ultra.
After a couple of days, to get familiar with the settings, shortcuts etc., now it feels great.

I don't see why an iPhone user can't swap for an Android phone now.

 

[Aquinus]

I don't see why an iPhone user can't swap for an Android phone now.

If an iPhone is your only Apple device, it's probably a pretty easy switch because you're not leveraging any of Apple's ecosystem. When you have an iPhone, an iPad, a Macbook Pro, two sets of AirPods, and a family with their own Apple devices, it becomes a little more burdensome if you want all of the same functionality. That's part of the reason why I personally wouldn't switch. I've sort of invested in the platform as a whole. Glad the switch is working out well for you though. Some Android phones are pretty nice.

 

[neatfeatguy]

If an iPhone is your only Apple device, it's probably a pretty easy switch because you're not leveraging any of Apple's ecosystem. When you have an iPhone, an iPad, a Macbook Pro, two sets of AirPods, and a family with their own Apple devices, it becomes a little more burdensome if you want all of the same functionality. That's part of the reason why I personally wouldn't switch. I've sort of invested in the platform as a whole. Glad the switch is working out well for you though. Some Android phones are pretty nice.

My brother is irritated with Apple and especially his iPhone. He wants to move to Android based, but like you mention, he's got his apple laptop/ipad and so on with everything all linked and he's not sure how well things will go if he moves to an Android phone.

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

Switching is a lot easier if you use platform-agnostic apps and sharing systems.

E.g. Spotify instead of iTunes.

 

[Pets4Ever]

Previous Phone: iPhone 13 Mini

Pros:

• small size is great for talking and one-hand use
• size also great for pocket bulk
• call quality was always good
• pictures were great
• performance was good

Cons:

• file management was a massive pain in the arse
• battery life was poor
• reception inside my car was awful
• weird bluetooth interactions with my Toyota
• could never find a music app as good as BlackPlayer Ex or an audiobook player as good as Smart Audiobook Player

Current Phone: Oneplus 13R

Pros:

• 6000 mAh silicon carbon battery
• 120hz screen
• great performance
• better reception, no issues in the car
• no bluetooth compatibility issues with car either despite even newer standard (iPhone was already newer than car)
• I can use my favorite android apps again
• smarter notification features (like letting me dismiss an alarm without opening the app)
• generally I can customize the experience to what I want more easily because more customization options are available

Cons:

• I've been afraid to update the OS because I've heard reports of battery drain on the latest(I only care for security reasons), tbf we had a battery drain update for iOS when I had my iPhone too
• auto enhancements can make photos look a bit fake (I haven't bothered to download a different app or search for a fix yet)
• awful big for one-handed use, though doable
• lots of pocket weight
• OnePlus decided to copy Apple's design language for the Quick Settings and I think the android layouts are better

 

[gffermari]

I wanted to buy a smart watch, a tablet etc. but didn't want to be locked in a platform.
I started using google apps so I could gradually reduce the dependency on apple ones.
The Apple universe is amazing, no one can say the opposite, but it's addictive, you get imprisoned too easily and it's difficult to move to something different.
iPhones are great. More than great. But I want to have a choice among the so many and different devices that are available.

 

[Aquinus]

Switching is a lot easier if you use platform-agnostic apps and sharing systems.

E.g. Spotify instead of iTunes.

I use Spotify even though most of my devices are Apple. For 10 USD a month for the family (my entire family uses it,) it's a no-brainer. It's also a lot more friendly to use than Apple Music. With that said, I do also use Apple Music and the quality of the audio from Apple Music is arguably better. I actually maintain copies of my photos from my mirrorless camera on both Adobe Lightroom Classic and Apple Photos, because I like features from both of the applications. The reality is that Apple's ecosystem is pretty seamless and I appreciate that. For example, if my wife is trying to put in a Wi-Fi password for a network my phone already knows about, I get a popup saying if I want to share the password if she's nearby. It's things like that which makes Apple really easy to use in my opinion. My daughter was at an event and she wanted pictures I took. I just airdropped them by being near her phone instead of cluttering up my texts with pictures I want to share. I have yet to use an ecosystem that rivals that level of integration and Apple tends to maintain support for their devices for longer than a lot of other vendors. My nearly 6 year old laptop still gets OS updates (although not for long,) and my daughter took over my old iPhone 11 Pro Max which still works great.

I wanted to buy a smart watch, a tablet etc. but didn't want to be locked in a platform.
I started using google apps so I could gradually reduce the dependency on apple ones.
The Apple universe is amazing, no one can say the opposite, but it's addictive, you get imprisoned too easily and it's difficult to move to something different.
iPhones are great. More than great. But I want to have a choice among the so many and different devices that are available.

I don't know. I don't find the lack of third party devices for their platform as restrictive. If anything is restrictive, it's the price, but if you can afford it and it works well for you, then it's a great set of products.