Anyone else considered giving up their iPhone for the new Galaxy S6?

[Lava Lamp Freak]

You must be referencing some old style or limit Android OS capability. I've had widgets and notifications in a pull down like what iOS 8.x offers on my Note 3 for a while now.

As with just about anything on Android, it's a simple add on that works beautifully. You can pull down notifications and see updates from anywhere, including the home screen and from inside any app.

I'm referring to the widgets that come with TouchWiz and Lollipop. To me it is ugly to have a bunch of individual widgets on a screen mixed with app icons. I much prefer the way app developers can add widgets to be included in Notification Center. It looks a lot cleaner. What are you referring to that allows widgets in a pull down on Android?

 

[Fernandez21]

To each his own. What ever phone or platform works for you is great!
But every time I hear someone base their opinions on Android from an S4...I cringle a little. That was not a great experience for you I am sure. But these days with the N4 and S6 the issues you had with the S4 are probably non existent now.

Indeed. I had mostly stayed away from Samsung over the years because of their crappy design and shorty software. I had a Note 2 for about a week, I liked the big screen and some of the features, but that was about it, everything else was pretty bad. Then the Note 3 came out and it was a marked improvement, though still not where the competition was but getting better. That phone lasted me 3 months before I gave it up.

Then came the Note 4, and this is where Samsung seemed like they were finally starting to get it. It was a huge improvement and it set up a foundation that brought the S6, which is probably the best phone out right now. These phones are just on another level when compared to the S5 and earlier Samsung. I went from not having any Samsung in my rotation, to now having 2. Today I actually went out without my iPhone and put my Sims in 2 Samsung phones for the day and really didn't skip a beat. They're finnaly the quality phone maker we all knew they could be, and even if you've been burned by them in the past, they really deserve a second look.

 

[jamezr]

Indeed. I had mostly stayed away from Samsung over the years because of their crappy design and shorty software. I had a Note 2 for about a week, I liked the big screen and some of the features, but that was about it, everything else was pretty bad. Then the Note 3 came out and it was a marked improvement, though still not where the competition was but getting better. That phone lasted me 3 months before I gave it up.

Then came the Note 4, and this is where Samsung seemed like they were finally starting to get it. It was a huge improvement and it set up a foundation that brought the S6, which is probably the best phone out right now. These phones are just on another level when compared to the S5 and earlier Samsung. I went from not having any Samsung in my rotation, to now having 2. Today I actually went out without my iPhone and put my Sims in 2 Samsung phones for the day and really didn't skip a beat. They're finnaly the quality phone maker we all knew they could be, and even if you've been burned by them in the past, they really deserve a second look.

I am really excited to see what Samsung has in store with the Note 5!
Will the Note 5 Edge include the S-Pen? Or will only the regular Note 5 have the S-Pen?

 

[nviz22]

I am going to say the S6 is the closest thing to the iPhone in terms of performance, user experience, and build quality, so if people switch to the S6, they won't miss a beat.

 

[derekmlr]

Well as mentioned, you dont get the full updates all the time with iOS. If you get an update with Android, you get the whole thing and if no new OS update, you can still update the apps and even get some features of the new OS.

If the phone supports it. Plenty of stories where the phone hardware or drivers have been a problem with updating. Friends have had parts of their phone not operate fully after doing their own updates, since the hardware manufacturer failed to release a update for them. Maybe Samsung is better about that than many others, I dunno. But the Android device market is very diverse.

I'm actually not sure which features (other than Siri from iOS 5) has been omitted from older phones. And Apple does seem to work towards making performance better for older devices. For example, when iOS7 made iPhone 4s and iPhone 4 somewhat sluggish, the 7.1 release made big optimizations purely for those devices (which also helped newer devices be even smoother). Keep in mind that iOS7 released during the time iPhone 5s did, which the iPhone 4 was already 3 years old.

If Android works for you, that's great. I've just heard enough about how much effort you need to give in order to have something Apple doesn't make me worry about. So, I pay for the convenience.

 

[pdqgp]

I'm referring to the widgets that come with TouchWiz and Lollipop. To me it is ugly to have a bunch of individual widgets on a screen mixed with app icons. I much prefer the way app developers can add widgets to be included in Notification Center. It looks a lot cleaner. What are you referring to that allows widgets in a pull down on Android?

What widgets would you like to have in the notification center on Android?

 

[TechnicallyTee]

After a few cycles, my 64gb S6 reached 6hrs of screen time yesterday on a single charge.

My S6 needed 7 or 8 cycles before reaching its full capacity. Almost sold it due to the seemingly poor battery life. Now 24 - 48 hours are no problem any longer.

Nice to know! that is my only concern and me having dealt with so many phones in the past I should've known it needed to have a few charge cycles to balance the battery out.

 

[jamezr]

Nice to know! that is my only concern and me having dealt with so many phones in the past I should've known it needed to have a few charge cycles to balance the battery out.

Those are my experience as well. The battery has really smoothed out for me. I don't get what Technarchy does but I get a solid 4 to 5 hours SOT on my S6e. Android 5.02 seems more power efficient as well. It loses less power during standby. Not as good as my 6+ but better that before.

 

[TechnicallyTee]

Those are my experience as well. The battery has really smoothed out for me. I don't get what Technarchy does but I get a solid 4 to 5 hours SOT on my S6e. Android 5.02 seems more power efficient as well. It loses less power during standby. Not as good as my 6+ but better that before.

Cool. Its good to finally hear some reports that the battery life has smoothed out for some users. I mean I don't expect it to last all day but Im good with it just getting me through my workday and idc what it does once I get home.

 

[Vegastouch]

Those are my experience as well. The battery has really smoothed out for me. I don't get what Technarchy does but I get a solid 4 to 5 hours SOT on my S6e. Android 5.02 seems more power efficient as well. It loses less power during standby. Not as good as my 6+ but better that before.

Ive gotton over 4 hours of SOT but not near 24 t0 48 hours standby. My best is 16.5 hours and i also havent had my phone go down past 15% yet either.

There are two games i play on it that takes up some juice as well so if i didnt have those , it would be even better.

 

[Vegastouch]

If the phone supports it. Plenty of stories where the phone hardware or drivers have been a problem with updating. Friends have had parts of their phone not operate fully after doing their own updates, since the hardware manufacturer failed to release a update for them. Maybe Samsung is better about that than many others, I dunno. But the Android device market is very diverse.

What do you mean "their own updates"? If a phone isnt compatible with a app, the playstore wont let you update it so they must be forcing it while rooted or downloading a .apk. But all the basic apps from Google should update and Facebook , etc.

If Android works for you, that's great. I've just heard enough about how much effort you need to give in order to have something Apple doesn't make me worry about. So, I pay for the convenience.

Im not sure what you mean here either. Some people say they are just too lazy to customize something, which is their perogotive. Apple is simple out of the box and you get what you get. It isnt hard to change some things around and make it look different and you dont have to do it all at once.

Hec you get things out of the box in Android that Apple doesnt have...like a much better sharing of things from any app you have and you can get many more things that you cant using a iPhone like many more keyboards, music players, etc.
I know, ...too much effort to type in keyboards and such in the playstore lol.

 

[derekmlr]

Im not sure what you mean here either. Some people say they are just too lazy to customize something, which is their perogotive. Apple is simple out of the box and you get what you get. It isnt hard to change some things around and make it look different and you dont have to do it all at once.

Hec you get things out of the box in Android that Apple doesnt have...like a much better sharing of things from any app you have and you can get many more things that you cant using a iPhone like many more keyboards, music players, etc.
I know, ...too much effort to type in keyboards and such in the playstore lol.

Didn't say it was hard or anything. Just tedious. I don't care to deal with it.

Simply point, I'm not interested. I've tried it, and Android doesn't appeal to me. It doesn't matter how much more features it adds that iPhone doesn't have.

Apple has a certain attention to detail I don't see in other products. But that's subjective, so again, Android doesn't appeal to me.