Great to hear that it should be resolved without hassle. I have to admit that I am a bit surprised that you're going to get another iPhone. I think conversed long enough over the years on this subforum for me to know that you value a sleek form factor with minimal bezels and the ability to customize your phone exactly how it suits your needs, including heavy use of home screen widgets--thinks the iPhone does not excel at.
What's drawing you back to it, especially this latest version that seems to be very incremental, if I may ask?
You know, it's a lot of little things all adding up. I think the main thing is that I'm disappointed in the lag my almost $900 phone has. I know I'll get called out on it, and many of you will say it doesn't exist. But for me it's real, and while it doesn't affect the functionality it's just straight up annoying. The only comparison I can make is trying to run windows on not enough RAM, just sometimes stuff slows down for no reason at all and other times it's smooth.
Another issue that the battery recall reminded me of is replacing my phone and customer service. With the low cost of replacing the screen I'd almost be tempted to not bother with insurance, almost. After listening to other MR members feedback on customer service I've started to think it's nicer to have a place which can service my phone no matter where I bought it from, no questions asked. Although ATT has never had an issue replacing a non ATT purchased phone, others haven't been so lucky. I'm also with Verizon now and don't know their exchange policies. I also don't want to feel like a 3rd class citizen if I happened to buy my phone off swappa or ebay.
Kind of in the same vein I'm sick and tired of being forced to buy a phone which is useless if I switch carriers. I'm tired of carriers being able to take away apps, change how the OS works, limit or remove features, and of course delay OS updates for 8+ months. At this point I'd like to say FU to the carriers and just bring my own unadulterated phone.
I also got a chance to try out ios 10, it's got some good stuff. What keeps me on Android are primarily 2 things, widgets and google voice. ios 10 widgets are decent, they still aren't close to android widgets, but at least widgets now exist on iOS giving me an alternative from the pages of mindless icons. Google voice, well no improvement whatsoever on that front. But I'm having issues with GV and Verizon anyway and having to use the app anyway instead of integrating GV, so it's not a big difference on iOS anyway.
I'm a bit disappointed in Allo and all the other crap Google is putting out there. I miss having a simple way to MMS and video without having to deal with multiple apps. If Google can't put all their messaging into one app, instead of several half baked apps, and stick to it then I'm not sure they deserve me.
Lastly, I've given a lot of thought to privacy. No I'm not a drug dealer trying to hide my tracks. But Apple seems extremely committed to not hand out my information. The fact that they make their money from hardware and not advertising really helps bolster that. I just feel my information will be safer with them.
Overall what I feel I'd give up are fully functional widgets and a larger phone. No phone is perfect and there is a very high probability I will get sick of the iPhone anyway. that's been my MO for the past 4 iPhone cycles, so ask me again in 2-3 months. I'm still curious on what Google will release, although I have little faith in them to execute something truly drool worthy or even worthy.
But I haven't truly decided yet, I'm still hoping for some surprises from Apple tomorrow.
