Goodbye Android OS

I have been using smart phones powered by Android for many years now. My first Android phone was myTouch Slide 3G. It was a great phone with a built-in keyboard. Next, I had the Sensation 4G. Another great phone from HTC. Sense UI is great as well. The third Android phone I had was the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (vanilla from Google). Though I miss Sense UI, this by far was my favorite Android phone. My last phone is the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 – unlike the previous ones, this ran on the Verizon network.

Before starting my run with Android, I owned an iPhone 3G. It was with the AT&T network. At that time, AT&T was the only carrier that had it but unfortunately, the coverage was horrible. I really liked iOS but I guess the network coverage left a bad taste that it affected my decision for future smart phones – as well as AT&T’s exclusivity with the iPhone. I should’ve went back once Verizon started to carry the iPhone.

What I loved about Android:

• It integrates with Google services seamlessly. Why Google? Because Google and its services seem to work with multiple platforms (Apple and Microsoft).
• Battery can be replaced. Though I have yet to take advantage of this. All my batteries never needed to be replaced or upgraded.
• Expansion of memory with the use of micro SD card. This was a big deal before but as many services are in the cloud, I find it less appealing. No need to store movies locally when there’s Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO Go, just to name a few. No need to store music locally when there’s Spotify, Google Play, iTunes Radio, Pandora, just to name a few. In fact, for me, storage will be primarily used for photos and videos. 8GB internal memory may be questionable but many phones come with 16GB.
• So many different offerings from different manufacturers.
• Lower cost of the phone.
• Wireless sync with Google (recently, iOS no longer requires iTunes for syncing).

So why am I going back to iOS after all these years? Here are my reasons.

• iOS just seems to be a smoother user experience than Android.
• Most iPhones get OS updates. For example, iOS 7 is compatible with 4, 4S, 5, 5S, and 5C. That’s at least 3 generations of phones. What Android phone has this? Let’s not include rooting. We could include vanilla Android phones from Google but it’s GSM compatible only – the 3 generations of iPhones are all carriers – so is it a fair comparison?
• To enjoy vanilla Android, you must have a GSM carrier. I’m on Verizon, so that’s out of the question.
• My last phone, Samsung Note 2 (Verizon) has been plagued with the wifi bug on 4.1.2. After weeks of this problem, no solution in site. After getting my new iPhone 5S, I ended up doing a factory reset and it looks like it fixed it. I didn’t want to do a factory reset before getting a new phone because the restore in Android isn’t as I expect (see next bullet).
• Restoring data in Android gets unexpected results – compared to my experience with restoring in iOS using iTunes. My phone never restores the same since the last update. Apps are all over the place. Some apps are reinstalled, some are not. Isn’t restoring from a back up supposed to be how the device was from the last back up? Well it’s not with Android, at least in my experience.
• Siri is smarter.
• My Note 2 has a quad core processor and was considered a “flagship” phone. Where’s my Android update??? I’m still stuck in 4.1.2. Rooting is not an option! Why root to get the latest? I paid for this phone, I shouldn’t have to root.

After all the frustration, I think I’ve had enough. Goodbye Android, hello iOS… again