Second guessing the iPhone...Android? (Yes another one of those)

[tonysoprano]

Hello fellow Rumors,

Hope you are all doing well and safe!

Firstly let me say that I have been a avid reader of this forum for years now, but never really felt the need to go through the hassle of creating an account and participating mostly because I really had nothing to add to the discussions. Until now I guess.

I have been using the iPhone ever since the iPhone 4 was released. I may have had a few interactions with Android in-between, mostly when I lost my iPhone and/or when it went for repair or stuff like that, and always with pretty cheap phones so it is a very soft sample of the platform. My parents both use Android phones so I know my way around for the most part (can do the basics at least).

I went from the iPhone 4 to 4S - 5S - 7 - XR - 11 - 12 - 13 Pro Max - 14 Pro - 13 base which is what I am currently using for the past months.

I bet you are wondering what happened on the last part of this chain of iPhones, and I will tell you: I lost my iPhone 12 at the time which I dearly loved and decided to go all in and got the 13 Pro Max. I only had it for 3 months until I eventually sold it. I had two major complaints about it: The size and the camera. The camera had some weird focusing problems, where it would always focus around the subject. This was not normal at all but honestly could be just my unit. The size: I don't have anything against big phones, at all. What really bothered me was the lack of usability of that big screen. Just seemed like they didn't care at all. It was an iPhone on steroids but with poor sense of opportunity.

So after that the 14 lineup was just released and I decided to go back to the regular sized iPhone and got the 14 Pro. Size was wonderful. I felt that the phone was just overall poorly balanced with those huge cameras on the back. Until now Apple has done barely nothing to make the dynamic island useful, I think you can all agree. I really thought we would quickly see a lot of different integrations and uses but it was mostly a music controller and a timer & calls big rectangle on the screen.

But even putting this aside... this little beast of a phone cost me nothing more nothing less than a whooping 1350 euros (Yes, I am in Europe - it is indeed shocking). And only after a few days I felt a considerable amount of buying remorse and after week and a half I returned it back to Apple.

The 14 Pro was great, but in general I just felt like the price hike from my iPhone 12 could not be justified in any palpable way. Yes the camera was better, the 120hz felt smooth and quick, but apart from that... what more? So I picked up a barely used 13 base model which I have been using for the past couple of months.

To no surprise it feels the same as my 12. Battery is a bit better. The 60hz took some getting used to again, but it is manageable. I would argue the camera is... almost the same? Now that I think about it... this iPhone 13, similar to my 12... feels roughly similar to my 11. Maybe to my XR apart from the screen being a lot better.

After all of this I just started feeling a bit stupid. Yeah, they work alright (even though iOS 16 has been a bit of a messy update) but how stale has the iPhone become overall? It is 2023 and we are yet to see stuff people have been asking for ages: multitasking? No. Free arrangement of the app icons on the home screen? No. USB-C? No. Faster charging? No. Gosh we got that "innovative" lock screen customization and now to change my home screen wallpaper I almost have to solve world hunger.

Of course it got me thinking about Android in general, and how I have recently been seeing how advanced and stable it has become in the past couple of years. I took close attention to the Pixel 7 Pro launch and while it did call for me slightly I just feel like Google phones are trimmed in certain ways that don't really translate to flagship quality. Being the materials, the bugs, the fact my country is not part of their store so I cannot buy from them, etc. I think we don't even get 5G on it...

Eventually last month the S23 lineup was released and this time around I was very very curious about it, specifically the S23 Ultra.

Design wise I do think it is a beautiful phone, lot different from the iPhone but not in a bad way. I had already really enjoyed the design of the S21 Ultra and the S22 Ultra, but being in Europe with the whole Exynos shenanigans I would never ever even consider to buy a phone that is a capped version of the one sold in other countries. What is this? Leftovers?

But this time around Samsung brought the big guns and the reviews are indeed unanimous: It is one (if not the best) of the best phones available right now. The competition being the iPhone 14 Pro/Pro Max.

So putting them the two side by side... why does the 14 Pro feels like a old iPhone with a bit of steroids?

I have been considering making the switch to the S23 Ultra, has you may or may not already have figured out. Apart from a few things that genuinely worry me, I do not suffer from the same issues that our fellow US friends do:

- Nobody, and I mean nobody used iMessage here. Heck, my sister has it turned off. My girlfriend sent me a Animojy 1 year go and that was it. We are all deeply entangled with Whatsapp. And if one day this country starts to shift platforms it would probably be to something like Telegram (always something cross platform and universal). So iMessage for me a a non-subject.

- In my case, the word ecosystem does not exist, at all:

I do not own a personal computer (Mac/Windows) because I work all day + extra hours in front of a PC and when I get home the last thing I want is to look at another. I haven't owned a personal computer I think in the last 5/6 years.

I also do not own any iPads/tablet, I much rather sit in the couch in front of a fairly modern 55 inch OLED TV and watch a good movie or some episodes of the Last of Us

I have never been a fan of watches, in general. So when Apple released the Apple Watch it didn't even cross my mind to get one and until this day I remain decided. I like my wrists free as a bird. I see a lot of people entangled with iPhone mostly because of the Apple Watch so this is (like the iMessage deal) a non-subject for me as well.

Don't own Airpods, Airtags, Apple TV's, nothing... the iPhone is my only Apple device. And actually my only device - period.

Now... what I do use: Airdrop. My girlfriend takes photos of our dogs and she Airdrops them to me, and vice versa. My sister the same thing. Sending photos through Whatsapp sucks because even if you have higher quality enabled on settings they always compress it to a point where it sucks. I would really need a good alternative to Airdrop.

Notes... We use a lot of shared notes. I honestly don't love the iPhone notes app, but my gf does like it. I guess I could convince her to use a third party, but it would have to be cross platform, free, and rather good.

Find My... I have already fixed this with Life360 like a year ago. Has a lot more functionality and circles are great too.

Facetime... this I use. Not on a daily basis but occasionally. While I have tried Whatsapp video calling - it is not bad bad but it is not particularly great either.

And I guess these are my ties that I need to untie in order to to the move. Everything else I use is cross-platform and I have never been much inclined to use Apple stuff like iCloud... I have used Google Photos for years paying for the premium storage. Gmail instead of the iOS Mail app; I do use Safari but switching browsers is ok for me...

I do need to resolve the issue with all my passwords being stored in iCloud Keychain. Is there a replacement for Android?

I have been fairly impressed with the camera feedback for the S23 Ultra, I do have two major worries:
- Video quality... how far is it from the iPhone in video?
- Shutter lag... is it still a thing? I do take daily photos of my dogs and they have 5000mAh batteries!

I don't really use social networks to record photos or videos, I may eventually share some stuff on Instagram or tiktok but I don't see the point in recording inside the apps. And I have been consistently reducing social networks on my life.

Lastly, the idea behind this long post is for you guys to "convince" me to do the jump. I need someone to blame if it goes south

Can you please give me your feedback and your user experience if you switched from the iPhone to the S23 Ultra? What do you miss and don't miss? What are the positives that you have been feeling? What are the negatives?

Also, I should note that my employer has a partnership with Samsung so I have 15% discount on everything, as per my investigation I can grab a unlocked S23 Ultra 512GB of storage for 1100 euros.

For comparison, if I wanted to grab a 512GB iPhone 14 Pro it would rip my wallet in 1740 euros, or for the 14 Pro Max an insane 1900 euros lmao. Almost 2k for a phone.

 

[HouseLannister]

We are at Peak Phone. Every upgrade is a minor iteration. They all blend together a bit. You won't get huge advances in a single generation, but they add up over time.

I love my S23, but it's kind of an S22 with better battery life. Which wasn't all that different from an S21. So it goes...

 

[Technerd108]

From reading your post and looking at your use case I think an s23 ultra would be a good fit for you.

If FaceTime and air drop are the only major blocks and you can use a FaceTime alternative already then I don't think it will be a big deal to jump on Android.

Samsung and Google both have a Find my phone application that you can use on the web from any phone or computer and it works just about the same as a iOS alternative.

I had a iPhone 13 Pro Max and and iPhone 11 Pro Max before it. I loved the 13 Pro Max but iOS 16 kind of killed the excellent battery life, got rid of the wallpaper I used and was buggy. It was a locked phone to T mobile and I was trying to lower my cellphone bill by using another carrier. Long story short I couldn't unlock the phone so I decided to trade it in for a Pixel 7 Pro. I also at the time had a Galaxy s22 plus I got very cheap as a backup phone.

So for me there were a lot more hurdles as I am in the Apple Ecosystem and friends and family use iMessage. I found making the switch there was some adjustments I had to make and some compatibility loss with my Apple devices but nothing I couldn't work around.

Through a Google Fi promotion I was able to buy the s23 ultra on pre order at half price with no trade in. I sold my s22 plus and was able to use that to buy the s23 ultra at half price. Got the bump up to 512gb and 12gb ram.

Coming from an iPhone I had some feelings of I am going to miss the phone. And for a week maybe I did but then I was much happier with the s23u and P7P. The s23u is just a better phone in every way to the iPhone.

The cameras are great with 10x optical zoom. I don't have any issues with shutter lag at all even taking a bunch of photos in fast succession. It is just a much better camera setup than the iPhone 13 Pro Max.

Video quality is excellent and very stable with really good vibration control.

The s23 ultra also has the s pen which if you ever take family photos and have a tripod you can set your phone up on the tri pod and use the s pen several feet away as a shutter button. So you can get a perfect portrait. No other phone can do this.

In terms of calls the s23 series all now have call screening like a Pixel so if you get a spam call you can have Bixby answer the phone for you and ask who is on the other line without having to actually answer the phone. It is a great feature. Not as advanced as Pixel but pretty close.

The screen is amazing. If you don't have a tablet or PC you can use the phone as a tablet with the 6.8" rectangular screen you get maximum use of the screen and it really feels like using a small tablet for content consumption and streaming. The screen is bright and you can adjust the color temperature exactly how you like it which you can't do on an iphone.

The speakers are amazing and have sound that is really rich and loud. It sounds like my iPad. It is that good.

If you wanted to you could use your tv screen and use dex to use the phone like a computer with multiple windows. It is pretty cool and since you don't have a tablet or PC it might come in handy. Obviously it is not as functional as a regular PC or Mac but it is a really good compromise when you need it.

The battery life on the ultra is also really good. I am a very heavy user and using the phone all day for probably 12 hours screen on streaming for several hours, going to Google news and multiple forums, email, texting, etc I had 40% battery at the end of the day and on average I have about 60% battery at the end of the day. The phone last like my iPhone 13 Pro Max used to before iOS 16.

Google has Google Keep notes that works multi platform so you can use it on iOS and syncs with your phone. You can take notes and they save and sync automatically. It is a great app so if you had your iPhone friends and family use keep notes you can instantly send notes to them.

As for airdrop Samsung has a similar application that does the same thing but I am not sure if you could use it on iOS. She would just have to text or email you the files or she could use Google Drive and just upload them to that and you could access the files that way.

Android 13 and OneUI 5.1 is really good. It is very stable and bug free. The amount of customization Samsung allows is amazing. Colors within the OS are themed to match the colors of your wallpaper. I can add gif's to my AOD always on display and to my lock screen or any pictures I want. I am a big Godzilla fan and so I have a gif of Godzilla on my AOD and lockscreen and it is just a lot of fun. There are a ton of other little design tweaks you can make to personalize the phone which you can't do on any other phone.

Samsung updates are pretty fast and you get 4 OS upgrades and 5 years of security patches.

I think you would enjoy the s23 ultra a lot and it would work better for your use case.

The phone is super fast, extremely stable, packed with features, great battery life, great screen, great speakers, great cameras. Samsung really did a good job this year. A lot of reviews on YouTube complain that the outer design didn't change much but they miss all the changes under the hood so to speak that are very major.

The Snapdragon 8 gen 2 is 30-40% faster than last year yet more efficient. Samsung added a bigger heat pipe cooling system as well. The storage is double the speed of last year using ufs 4.0 vs 3.1 and uses half the power. The storage is as fast as NVME SSD and possibly faster. The ram is ddr5x which is 30% faster bandwidth with the same power draw as ddr5 in iPhone, the screen uses less power while still being as bright, the speakers are bigger and better, the design is more flat along the edges and the screen has less of a curve. A lot of refinement went into the design of this phone which makes it a HUGE improvement over last year. The edges are easier to grip making the large phone more comfortable in your hands and because it use armor aluminum it is much lighter than the iPhone 14 pro max. The aluminum is treated to resist scratches better than regular aluminum which is very soft.

Literally the Ultra really lives up to its name, is a pleasure to use and is an Android multi tasking dream.

Lastly price. I am not in Europe so I don't know Samsung pricing but here in the US if you look you can always find much better pricing in Samsung than iPhone. I got my ultra as I stated for under $100 and it is an unlocked phone. I have to use Google Fi for four months and I own the phone free and clear. I paid $599 for it and sold my s22 plus on private market for almost the same price. So if you are willing to do a little research and sell your iPhone on Swappa or other private market alternative you can get the price to an affordable range and have an absolute beast of a phone.

Get it and see for yourself. I am very confident that you will be very happy. There is an adjustment period so use it for over a week exclusively so you can get past any pain points coming from iOS. If you give it enough time you won't go back!

 

[Roadstar]

But even putting this aside... this little beast of a phone cost me nothing more nothing less than a whooping 1350 euros (Yes, I am in Europe - it is indeed shocking). And only after a few days I felt a considerable amount of buying remorse and after week and a half I returned it back to Apple.

A fellow European here, and I feel you with the iPhone prices. They've become rather ridiculous especially after this "exchange rate adjustment" Apple pulled with the iPhone 14 series and increased at least the pro model prices by around 170 euros. Now there are rumors that Apple's going to do some actual price increases with the iPhone 15 line, so I'm more than a little bit afraid of what they're going to cost around here.

Of course it got me thinking about Android in general, and how I have recently been seeing how advanced and stable it has become in the past couple of years. I took close attention to the Pixel 7 Pro launch and while it did call for me slightly I just feel like Google phones are trimmed in certain ways that don't really translate to flagship quality. Being the materials, the bugs, the fact my country is not part of their store so I cannot buy from them, etc. I think we don't even get 5G on it...

That missing 5G availability together with the lack of features such as VoLTE and VoWiFi here in Finland has been a bummer regarding the Pixel line, but now we've got 5G on one carrier in the update, so there's a little hope that in the near future also the Pixel line could be a real contender soon. I've had a couple of Pixels and I really liked the camera, but currently I can't really use a phone that doesn't support VoWiFi as my daily carry, so I'm eagerly waiting for Google to fix that.

Eventually last month the S23 lineup was released and this time around I was very very curious about it, specifically the S23 Ultra.

Design wise I do think it is a beautiful phone, lot different from the iPhone but not in a bad way. I had already really enjoyed the design of the S21 Ultra and the S22 Ultra, but being in Europe with the whole Exynos shenanigans I would never ever even consider to buy a phone that is a capped version of the one sold in other countries. What is this? Leftovers?

But this time around Samsung brought the big guns and the reviews are indeed unanimous: It is one (if not the best) of the best phones available right now. The competition being the iPhone 14 Pro/Pro Max.

Yep, SnapDragon availability was what made me upgrade from my otherwise fine S22+ to the S23+. I had a my share of most likely Exynos-induced hiccups with my S22+, so finally getting Samsung SnapDragon flagships here was a most welcome improvement. With both phones I also considered the Ultra, but eventually settled for the Plus version thanks to the flat screen (I've had some phones with curved screens and it's always been a huge minus usability-wise despite looking fancy) and more manageable size (my current iPhone is the 13 Pro), even though the camera differences lured me towards the huge model.

I have been considering making the switch to the S23 Ultra, has you may or may not already have figured out. Apart from a few things that genuinely worry me, I do not suffer from the same issues that our fellow US friends do:

- Nobody, and I mean nobody used iMessage here. Heck, my sister has it turned off. My girlfriend sent me a Animojy 1 year go and that was it. We are all deeply entangled with Whatsapp. And if one day this country starts to shift platforms it would probably be to something like Telegram (always something cross platform and universal). So iMessage for me a a non-subject.

Second that. The lack of iMessage is a complete non-issue here and even when using an iPhone primarily I've often had iMessage turned off to prevent my messages getting stuck in a limbo after switching platforms once again.

Now... what I do use: Airdrop. My girlfriend takes photos of our dogs and she Airdrops them to me, and vice versa. My sister the same thing. Sending photos through Whatsapp sucks because even if you have higher quality enabled on settings they always compress it to a point where it sucks. I would really need a good alternative to Airdrop.

Google Photos shared albums? That's how I often share photos to my wife who's mainly on the iPhone.

I do need to resolve the issue with all my passwords being stored in iCloud Keychain. Is there a replacement for Android?

I wouldn't look for a platform-specific replacement for a platform-specific feature but rather do away with the platform tie-in completely. I've been a 1Password user for years and it's been serving me well regardless of whether I've been on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and lately even on Linux.

Can you please give me your feedback and your user experience if you switched from the iPhone to the S23 Ultra? What do you miss and don't miss? What are the positives that you have been feeling? What are the negatives?

Also, I should note that my employer has a partnership with Samsung so I have 15% discount on everything, as per my investigation I can grab a unlocked S23 Ultra 512GB of storage for 1100 euros.

For comparison, if I wanted to grab a 512GB iPhone 14 Pro it would rip my wallet in 1740 euros, or for the 14 Pro Max an insane 1900 euros lmao. Almost 2k for a phone.

Well, for me I currently have both the iPhone 13 Pro and the S23+, but it's the S23+ where my primary SIM has been living since I got it, since previously it was in the S22+. While some apps are better on iOS, I like the split-screen multitasking on Android as well as more flexible mobile payments. We have Apple Pay here, but if I want to use loyalty cards in pretty much any store chain, I can't do that with Apple Pay but pay with the much more cumbersome MobilePay app instead. With my S23+ an app takes care of the loyalty card in the two largest chain and hands over the actual payment to Google Pay.

That 1100 euros for a 512GB Ultra is a nice price as well. The official price tags of the latest Samsungs are rather high, too, but the trick is that you shouldn't pay those as a deal is almost always available. I paid 999e for my 512GB S23+ on pre-order even though the official retail price is 1399€. The iPhone 14 Pro with the same storage would be 1739€.

 

[antiprotest]

I am here to admire the wall of text. 🖼️

 

[Technerd108]

I am here to admire the wall of text. 🖼️

You should read my posts history of you like walls of text. 😂 Lol. Since this started with a long post I didn't feel bad going all out in my response. 😂

 

[SteveJUAE]

Hello fellow Rumors,

Hope you are all doing well and safe!

Firstly let me say that I have been a avid reader of this forum for years now, but never really felt the need to go through the hassle of creating an account and participating mostly because I really had nothing to add to the discussions. Until now I guess.

I have been using the iPhone ever since the iPhone 4 was released. I may have had a few interactions with Android in-between, mostly when I lost my iPhone and/or when it went for repair or stuff like that, and always with pretty cheap phones so it is a very soft sample of the platform. My parents both use Android phones so I know my way around for the most part (can do the basics at least).

I went from the iPhone 4 to 4S - 5S - 7 - XR - 11 - 12 - 13 Pro Max - 14 Pro - 13 base which is what I am currently using for the past months.

I bet you are wondering what happened on the last part of this chain of iPhones, and I will tell you: I lost my iPhone 12 at the time which I dearly loved and decided to go all in and got the 13 Pro Max. I only had it for 3 months until I eventually sold it. I had two major complaints about it: The size and the camera. The camera had some weird focusing problems, where it would always focus around the subject. This was not normal at all but honestly could be just my unit. The size: I don't have anything against big phones, at all. What really bothered me was the lack of usability of that big screen. Just seemed like they didn't care at all. It was an iPhone on steroids but with poor sense of opportunity.

So after that the 14 lineup was just released and I decided to go back to the regular sized iPhone and got the 14 Pro. Size was wonderful. I felt that the phone was just overall poorly balanced with those huge cameras on the back. Until now Apple has done barely nothing to make the dynamic island useful, I think you can all agree. I really thought we would quickly see a lot of different integrations and uses but it was mostly a music controller and a timer & calls big rectangle on the screen.

But even putting this aside... this little beast of a phone cost me nothing more nothing less than a whooping 1350 euros (Yes, I am in Europe - it is indeed shocking). And only after a few days I felt a considerable amount of buying remorse and after week and a half I returned it back to Apple.

The 14 Pro was great, but in general I just felt like the price hike from my iPhone 12 could not be justified in any palpable way. Yes the camera was better, the 120hz felt smooth and quick, but apart from that... what more? So I picked up a barely used 13 base model which I have been using for the past couple of months.

To no surprise it feels the same as my 12. Battery is a bit better. The 60hz took some getting used to again, but it is manageable. I would argue the camera is... almost the same? Now that I think about it... this iPhone 13, similar to my 12... feels roughly similar to my 11. Maybe to my XR apart from the screen being a lot better.

After all of this I just started feeling a bit stupid. Yeah, they work alright (even though iOS 16 has been a bit of a messy update) but how stale has the iPhone become overall? It is 2023 and we are yet to see stuff people have been asking for ages: multitasking? No. Free arrangement of the app icons on the home screen? No. USB-C? No. Faster charging? No. Gosh we got that "innovative" lock screen customization and now to change my home screen wallpaper I almost have to solve world hunger.

Of course it got me thinking about Android in general, and how I have recently been seeing how advanced and stable it has become in the past couple of years. I took close attention to the Pixel 7 Pro launch and while it did call for me slightly I just feel like Google phones are trimmed in certain ways that don't really translate to flagship quality. Being the materials, the bugs, the fact my country is not part of their store so I cannot buy from them, etc. I think we don't even get 5G on it...

Eventually last month the S23 lineup was released and this time around I was very very curious about it, specifically the S23 Ultra.

Design wise I do think it is a beautiful phone, lot different from the iPhone but not in a bad way. I had already really enjoyed the design of the S21 Ultra and the S22 Ultra, but being in Europe with the whole Exynos shenanigans I would never ever even consider to buy a phone that is a capped version of the one sold in other countries. What is this? Leftovers?

But this time around Samsung brought the big guns and the reviews are indeed unanimous: It is one (if not the best) of the best phones available right now. The competition being the iPhone 14 Pro/Pro Max.

So putting them the two side by side... why does the 14 Pro feels like a old iPhone with a bit of steroids?

I have been considering making the switch to the S23 Ultra, has you may or may not already have figured out. Apart from a few things that genuinely worry me, I do not suffer from the same issues that our fellow US friends do:

- Nobody, and I mean nobody used iMessage here. Heck, my sister has it turned off. My girlfriend sent me a Animojy 1 year go and that was it. We are all deeply entangled with Whatsapp. And if one day this country starts to shift platforms it would probably be to something like Telegram (always something cross platform and universal). So iMessage for me a a non-subject.

- In my case, the word ecosystem does not exist, at all:

I do not own a personal computer (Mac/Windows) because I work all day + extra hours in front of a PC and when I get home the last thing I want is to look at another. I haven't owned a personal computer I think in the last 5/6 years.

I also do not own any iPads/tablet, I much rather sit in the couch in front of a fairly modern 55 inch OLED TV and watch a good movie or some episodes of the Last of Us

I have never been a fan of watches, in general. So when Apple released the Apple Watch it didn't even cross my mind to get one and until this day I remain decided. I like my wrists free as a bird. I see a lot of people entangled with iPhone mostly because of the Apple Watch so this is (like the iMessage deal) a non-subject for me as well.

Don't own Airpods, Airtags, Apple TV's, nothing... the iPhone is my only Apple device. And actually my only device - period.

Now... what I do use: Airdrop. My girlfriend takes photos of our dogs and she Airdrops them to me, and vice versa. My sister the same thing. Sending photos through Whatsapp sucks because even if you have higher quality enabled on settings they always compress it to a point where it sucks. I would really need a good alternative to Airdrop.

Notes... We use a lot of shared notes. I honestly don't love the iPhone notes app, but my gf does like it. I guess I could convince her to use a third party, but it would have to be cross platform, free, and rather good.

Find My... I have already fixed this with Life360 like a year ago. Has a lot more functionality and circles are great too.

Facetime... this I use. Not on a daily basis but occasionally. While I have tried Whatsapp video calling - it is not bad bad but it is not particularly great either.

And I guess these are my ties that I need to untie in order to to the move. Everything else I use is cross-platform and I have never been much inclined to use Apple stuff like iCloud... I have used Google Photos for years paying for the premium storage. Gmail instead of the iOS Mail app; I do use Safari but switching browsers is ok for me...

I do need to resolve the issue with all my passwords being stored in iCloud Keychain. Is there a replacement for Android?

I have been fairly impressed with the camera feedback for the S23 Ultra, I do have two major worries:
- Video quality... how far is it from the iPhone in video?
- Shutter lag... is it still a thing? I do take daily photos of my dogs and they have 5000mAh batteries!

I don't really use social networks to record photos or videos, I may eventually share some stuff on Instagram or tiktok but I don't see the point in recording inside the apps. And I have been consistently reducing social networks on my life.

Lastly, the idea behind this long post is for you guys to "convince" me to do the jump. I need someone to blame if it goes south

Can you please give me your feedback and your user experience if you switched from the iPhone to the S23 Ultra? What do you miss and don't miss? What are the positives that you have been feeling? What are the negatives?

Also, I should note that my employer has a partnership with Samsung so I have 15% discount on everything, as per my investigation I can grab a unlocked S23 Ultra 512GB of storage for 1100 euros.

For comparison, if I wanted to grab a 512GB iPhone 14 Pro it would rip my wallet in 1740 euros, or for the 14 Pro Max an insane 1900 euros lmao. Almost 2k for a phone.

As literally a single device user all you are going to miss is familiarity and just a bit of time initially swapping some things over to say OneDrive or google photo for sharing access with your GF

Do not underestimate other stealth savings on running cost you also benefit with Samsung this can easily be another 1-200 euros per year/phone on top of your employers discount. Especially as you are a regular phone buyer.

Apps, subscriptions are usually cheaper and OEM accessories, cases, screen protectors are often bundled or heavily discounted. 2nd hand values of Apple vs Android are largely irrelevant consideration outside of US and offset by the stealth savings that seem to be conveniently missed by most comparisons as its true running cost that count not sticker prices

If your employer has Free Office365 for employees you get 1TB of cloud storage

You seem an ideal candidate for being brand neutral but money wise

 

[ian87w]

I get the gist, but I don’t see the point of complaining about expensive iPhones by buying an also expensive Samsung. You’re still spending well over $1000 every year for a phone. If cost really is the concern, then simply not upgrade yearly. A $1000 iPhone is only $333 per year if you keep it for 3 years. Most recent phone hardware can perform well in 3 to 5 years as the smartphone and software imo have peaked. The increase in performance no longer make a huge difference in daily tasks.

Here’s what I would do. Instead of switching to Android entirely, keep your iPhone and simply get an Android mid range. $400-$500 Android phones today are great and will do 90-95% of their flagship counterparts. Go check the Galaxy A54. It has returned to premium glass back, and the 256GB model is still less than $500 (at least in my country). You can test the waters, get familiar, make sure the platform delivers the same experience for your current workflow without spending a lot of money.

That’s my take if the phone price is truly the issue. Complaining how iPhone costs more than $1000 by buying another $1000 Android makes zero sense to me. It’s as if you just want a new toy 😉🤭 Nothing’s wrong with that, but simply be honest of your own personal goal, and that way, you can have better judgement and mindset.

 

[Technerd108]

I get the gist, but I don’t see the point of complaining about expensive iPhones by buying an also expensive Samsung. You’re still spending well over $1000 every year for a phone. If cost really is the concern, then simply not upgrade yearly. A $1000 iPhone is only $333 per year if you keep it for 3 years. Most recent phone hardware can perform well in 3 to 5 years as the smartphone and software imo have peaked. The increase in performance no longer make a huge difference in daily tasks.

Here’s what I would do. Instead of switching to Android entirely, keep your iPhone and simply get an Android mid range. $400-$500 Android phones today are great and will do 90-95% of their flagship counterparts. Go check the Galaxy A54. It has returned to premium glass back, and the 256GB model is still less than $500 (at least in my country). You can test the waters, get familiar, make sure the platform delivers the same experience for your current workflow without spending a lot of money.

That’s my take if the phone price is truly the issue. Complaining how iPhone costs more than $1000 by buying another $1000 Android makes zero sense to me. It’s as if you just want a new toy 😉🤭 Nothing’s wrong with that, but simply be honest of your own personal goal, and that way, you can have better judgement and mindset.

I agree the Samsung a54 seems like a nice phone but I have a different take and again if you can find a discount a regular s23 is very nice and I would still say it is better than the a54 because of the snapdragon chipset, faster ram vs Exynos and slower ram.

Both will get the same 4 years of OS upgrades and 5 years of security patches but I think that the a54 is quarterly vs monthly on the base s23.

Flat screen on the s23 too.

But I still think that you shouldn't just test the water. It is the safe choice but also might give you the wrong impression. If you get the s23 or s23 ultra you will really get to experience the best Android has to offer. With the ultra I think it may fit your needs better and would be better to keep longer so the example the poster above gave is still around $300/ euro a year if you only keep it 3 year's.

I don't agree phone's have peaked because every time I use an older phone or mid range phone it feels slow to me. I like having the latest and greatest and since you literally only have a phone and TV I think the ultra will serve you better than anything else.

Sometimes saving money with certain things just isn't worth it. You spend less up front but pay in other ways and since phones are so important in our lives it is one area where I wouldn't try to get a lesser phone to save money. I would rather look for deals and sell my used electronics as high as I could so I could get the newest and best model I could afford. Also if the S23 ultra is half the price roughly of a similar spec iPhone then you are saving a lot right there.

Finally if you keep the iPhone it is going to be harder to make the jump into Android.

I would keep the iPhone until you decide whether or nit you actually like the ultra just in case and then if you do like it , sell the iPhone. Or do a trade in but wait to send it in until you know for sure what direction you want to go in.

 

[ian87w]

I agree the Samsung a54 seems like a nice phone but I have a different take and again if you can find a discount a regular s23 is very nice and I would still say it is better than the a54 because of the snapdragon chipset, faster ram vs Exynos and slower ram.

Both will get the same 4 years of OS upgrades and 5 years of security patches but I think that the a54 is quarterly vs monthly on the base s23.

Flat screen on the s23 too.

But I still think that you shouldn't just test the water. It is the safe choice but also might give you the wrong impression. If you get the s23 or s23 ultra you will really get to experience the best Android has to offer. With the ultra I think it may fit your needs better and would be better to keep longer so the example the poster above gave is still around $300/ euro a year if you only keep it 3 year's.

I don't agree phone's have peaked because every time I use an older phone or mid range phone it feels slow to me. I like having the latest and greatest and since you literally only have a phone and TV I think the ultra will serve you better than anything else.

Sometimes saving money with certain things just isn't worth it. You spend less up front but pay in other ways and since phones are so important in our lives it is one area where I wouldn't try to get a lesser phone to save money. I would rather look for deals and sell my used electronics as high as I could so I could get the newest and best model I could afford. Also if the S23 ultra is half the price roughly of a similar spec iPhone then you are saving a lot right there.

Finally if you keep the iPhone it is going to be harder to make the jump into Android.

I would keep the iPhone until you decide whether or nit you actually like the ultra just in case and then if you do like it , sell the iPhone. Or do a trade in but wait to send it in until you know for sure what direction you want to go in.

Samsung A5x series gets monthly security patches. That’s what unique about this series. They’re the only mid ranger that got flagship treatment for security itches. Other A models, including A7x series, get quarterly patches.

My take on the OP is that if the price of iPhone is the issue, buying an also expensive Android makes zero sense 😅, thus my idea of getting g the A54 instead (or maybe the S21 FE).

 

[Technerd108]

I don't agree that buying an expensive Android makes zero sense for the reasons I stated.

I don't think the OP can't afford an expensive iPhone but he just thinks that they are getting way to expensive for what they offer. Specially when you can get a S23 Ultra with similar specs for like €750 less than the iPhone. I agree with his assessment.

However the OP hasn't responded in a while so who knows??

 

[257Loner]

OP, have you considered foldable smartphones? They tend to have cover screens for quick use, and can unfold to iPad mini-sized inner displays for multitasking. An unfoldable smartphone might be worth investigating if your smartphone is your only computer.

 

[Technerd108]

OP, have you considered foldable smartphones? They tend to have cover screens for quick use, and can unfold to iPad mini-sized inner displays for multitasking. An unfoldable smartphone might be worth investigating if your smartphone is your only computer.

Good point and idea.

 

[OneBar]

[...]
But even putting this aside... this little beast of a phone cost me nothing more nothing less than a whooping 1350 euros (Yes, I am in Europe - it is indeed shocking). And only after a few days I felt a considerable amount of buying remorse and after week and a half I returned it back to Apple.
[...]

Yeah that "price hike" was exchange rate and inflation.

My recommendation would be to purchase a phone and stick with it. You're wasting money by purchasing, selling, purchasing, selling. Keep the phone for several years. Your longest stretch was the 5s to 7. I'm still using my 11PM and just now seriously considering getting the 15PM when it drops. Which will make my run 4s-6s-8+-11PM-15PM.

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

A fellow European here, and I feel you with the iPhone prices. They've become rather ridiculous especially after this "exchange rate adjustment" Apple pulled with the iPhone 14 series and increased at least the pro model prices by around 170 euros. Now there are rumors that Apple's going to do some actual price increases with the iPhone 15 line, so I'm more than a little bit afraid of what they're going to cost around here.



That missing 5G availability together with the lack of features such as VoLTE and VoWiFi here in Finland has been a bummer regarding the Pixel line, but now we've got 5G on one carrier in the update, so there's a little hope that in the near future also the Pixel line could be a real contender soon. I've had a couple of Pixels and I really liked the camera, but currently I can't really use a phone that doesn't support VoWiFi as my daily carry, so I'm eagerly waiting for Google to fix that.



Yep, SnapDragon availability was what made me upgrade from my otherwise fine S22+ to the S23+. I had a my share of most likely Exynos-induced hiccups with my S22+, so finally getting Samsung SnapDragon flagships here was a most welcome improvement. With both phones I also considered the Ultra, but eventually settled for the Plus version thanks to the flat screen (I've had some phones with curved screens and it's always been a huge minus usability-wise despite looking fancy) and more manageable size (my current iPhone is the 13 Pro), even though the camera differences lured me towards the huge model.



Second that. The lack of iMessage is a complete non-issue here and even when using an iPhone primarily I've often had iMessage turned off to prevent my messages getting stuck in a limbo after switching platforms once again.



Google Photos shared albums? That's how I often share photos to my wife who's mainly on the iPhone.



I wouldn't look for a platform-specific replacement for a platform-specific feature but rather do away with the platform tie-in completely. I've been a 1Password user for years and it's been serving me well regardless of whether I've been on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and lately even on Linux.



Well, for me I currently have both the iPhone 13 Pro and the S23+, but it's the S23+ where my primary SIM has been living since I got it, since previously it was in the S22+. While some apps are better on iOS, I like the split-screen multitasking on Android as well as more flexible mobile payments. We have Apple Pay here, but if I want to use loyalty cards in pretty much any store chain, I can't do that with Apple Pay but pay with the much more cumbersome MobilePay app instead. With my S23+ an app takes care of the loyalty card in the two largest chain and hands over the actual payment to Google Pay.

That 1100 euros for a 512GB Ultra is a nice price as well. The official price tags of the latest Samsungs are rather high, too, but the trick is that you shouldn't pay those as a deal is almost always available. I paid 999e for my 512GB S23+ on pre-order even though the official retail price is 1399€. The iPhone 14 Pro with the same storage would be 1739€.

How about note taking app?

 

[petvas]

Hello fellow Rumors,

Hope you are all doing well and safe!

Firstly let me say that I have been a avid reader of this forum for years now, but never really felt the need to go through the hassle of creating an account and participating mostly because I really had nothing to add to the discussions. Until now I guess.

I have been using the iPhone ever since the iPhone 4 was released. I may have had a few interactions with Android in-between, mostly when I lost my iPhone and/or when it went for repair or stuff like that, and always with pretty cheap phones so it is a very soft sample of the platform. My parents both use Android phones so I know my way around for the most part (can do the basics at least).

I went from the iPhone 4 to 4S - 5S - 7 - XR - 11 - 12 - 13 Pro Max - 14 Pro - 13 base which is what I am currently using for the past months.

I bet you are wondering what happened on the last part of this chain of iPhones, and I will tell you: I lost my iPhone 12 at the time which I dearly loved and decided to go all in and got the 13 Pro Max. I only had it for 3 months until I eventually sold it. I had two major complaints about it: The size and the camera. The camera had some weird focusing problems, where it would always focus around the subject. This was not normal at all but honestly could be just my unit. The size: I don't have anything against big phones, at all. What really bothered me was the lack of usability of that big screen. Just seemed like they didn't care at all. It was an iPhone on steroids but with poor sense of opportunity.

So after that the 14 lineup was just released and I decided to go back to the regular sized iPhone and got the 14 Pro. Size was wonderful. I felt that the phone was just overall poorly balanced with those huge cameras on the back. Until now Apple has done barely nothing to make the dynamic island useful, I think you can all agree. I really thought we would quickly see a lot of different integrations and uses but it was mostly a music controller and a timer & calls big rectangle on the screen.

But even putting this aside... this little beast of a phone cost me nothing more nothing less than a whooping 1350 euros (Yes, I am in Europe - it is indeed shocking). And only after a few days I felt a considerable amount of buying remorse and after week and a half I returned it back to Apple.

The 14 Pro was great, but in general I just felt like the price hike from my iPhone 12 could not be justified in any palpable way. Yes the camera was better, the 120hz felt smooth and quick, but apart from that... what more? So I picked up a barely used 13 base model which I have been using for the past couple of months.

To no surprise it feels the same as my 12. Battery is a bit better. The 60hz took some getting used to again, but it is manageable. I would argue the camera is... almost the same? Now that I think about it... this iPhone 13, similar to my 12... feels roughly similar to my 11. Maybe to my XR apart from the screen being a lot better.

After all of this I just started feeling a bit stupid. Yeah, they work alright (even though iOS 16 has been a bit of a messy update) but how stale has the iPhone become overall? It is 2023 and we are yet to see stuff people have been asking for ages: multitasking? No. Free arrangement of the app icons on the home screen? No. USB-C? No. Faster charging? No. Gosh we got that "innovative" lock screen customization and now to change my home screen wallpaper I almost have to solve world hunger.

Of course it got me thinking about Android in general, and how I have recently been seeing how advanced and stable it has become in the past couple of years. I took close attention to the Pixel 7 Pro launch and while it did call for me slightly I just feel like Google phones are trimmed in certain ways that don't really translate to flagship quality. Being the materials, the bugs, the fact my country is not part of their store so I cannot buy from them, etc. I think we don't even get 5G on it...

Eventually last month the S23 lineup was released and this time around I was very very curious about it, specifically the S23 Ultra.

Design wise I do think it is a beautiful phone, lot different from the iPhone but not in a bad way. I had already really enjoyed the design of the S21 Ultra and the S22 Ultra, but being in Europe with the whole Exynos shenanigans I would never ever even consider to buy a phone that is a capped version of the one sold in other countries. What is this? Leftovers?

But this time around Samsung brought the big guns and the reviews are indeed unanimous: It is one (if not the best) of the best phones available right now. The competition being the iPhone 14 Pro/Pro Max.

So putting them the two side by side... why does the 14 Pro feels like a old iPhone with a bit of steroids?

I have been considering making the switch to the S23 Ultra, has you may or may not already have figured out. Apart from a few things that genuinely worry me, I do not suffer from the same issues that our fellow US friends do:

- Nobody, and I mean nobody used iMessage here. Heck, my sister has it turned off. My girlfriend sent me a Animojy 1 year go and that was it. We are all deeply entangled with Whatsapp. And if one day this country starts to shift platforms it would probably be to something like Telegram (always something cross platform and universal). So iMessage for me a a non-subject.

- In my case, the word ecosystem does not exist, at all:

I do not own a personal computer (Mac/Windows) because I work all day + extra hours in front of a PC and when I get home the last thing I want is to look at another. I haven't owned a personal computer I think in the last 5/6 years.

I also do not own any iPads/tablet, I much rather sit in the couch in front of a fairly modern 55 inch OLED TV and watch a good movie or some episodes of the Last of Us

I have never been a fan of watches, in general. So when Apple released the Apple Watch it didn't even cross my mind to get one and until this day I remain decided. I like my wrists free as a bird. I see a lot of people entangled with iPhone mostly because of the Apple Watch so this is (like the iMessage deal) a non-subject for me as well.

Don't own Airpods, Airtags, Apple TV's, nothing... the iPhone is my only Apple device. And actually my only device - period.

Now... what I do use: Airdrop. My girlfriend takes photos of our dogs and she Airdrops them to me, and vice versa. My sister the same thing. Sending photos through Whatsapp sucks because even if you have higher quality enabled on settings they always compress it to a point where it sucks. I would really need a good alternative to Airdrop.

Notes... We use a lot of shared notes. I honestly don't love the iPhone notes app, but my gf does like it. I guess I could convince her to use a third party, but it would have to be cross platform, free, and rather good.

Find My... I have already fixed this with Life360 like a year ago. Has a lot more functionality and circles are great too.

Facetime... this I use. Not on a daily basis but occasionally. While I have tried Whatsapp video calling - it is not bad bad but it is not particularly great either.

And I guess these are my ties that I need to untie in order to to the move. Everything else I use is cross-platform and I have never been much inclined to use Apple stuff like iCloud... I have used Google Photos for years paying for the premium storage. Gmail instead of the iOS Mail app; I do use Safari but switching browsers is ok for me...

I do need to resolve the issue with all my passwords being stored in iCloud Keychain. Is there a replacement for Android?

I have been fairly impressed with the camera feedback for the S23 Ultra, I do have two major worries:
- Video quality... how far is it from the iPhone in video?
- Shutter lag... is it still a thing? I do take daily photos of my dogs and they have 5000mAh batteries!

I don't really use social networks to record photos or videos, I may eventually share some stuff on Instagram or tiktok but I don't see the point in recording inside the apps. And I have been consistently reducing social networks on my life.

Lastly, the idea behind this long post is for you guys to "convince" me to do the jump. I need someone to blame if it goes south

Can you please give me your feedback and your user experience if you switched from the iPhone to the S23 Ultra? What do you miss and don't miss? What are the positives that you have been feeling? What are the negatives?

Also, I should note that my employer has a partnership with Samsung so I have 15% discount on everything, as per my investigation I can grab a unlocked S23 Ultra 512GB of storage for 1100 euros.

For comparison, if I wanted to grab a 512GB iPhone 14 Pro it would rip my wallet in 1740 euros, or for the 14 Pro Max an insane 1900 euros lmao. Almost 2k for a phone.

I think that the S23 Ultra will be great for your needs. Regarding your questions:

Facetime: You could use Skype, WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger. Google Meet is also available on iOS and could be a good solution, if you convince your family to use it.

Notes: Just use OneNote. It doesn't cost anything and it works on all platforms. It's not as simple as Apple Notes, but we can't have everything, can we?

iCloud Keychain: You can import everything to 1Password. This is what I did and I enjoy cross platform compatibility. You would have to pay a subscription for 1Password though.

Video quality: The S23 Ultra shoots very good video. The iPhone is still a bit better though, but the difference is not big.

I have both an iPhone 14 Pro Max and an S23 Ultra. I use both but I enjoy using the S23 more. One thing to consider though is the app quality. Definitely better on iOS. Even WhatsApp is better on iOS.

 

[The Game 161]

You mention shutter lag if this is a big issue then you may be frustrated. It’s improved but still a problem and why I couldn’t make the Ultra my main go to camera for the photos that matter the most to me

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

If you're not happy with your iPhone and want to try an Android, go ahead. You'll never know unless you try. I haven't used a Mac for my entire life until Apple Silicon showed up, and since I wasn't happy with Windows I wanted to try the new chips since they were getting stellar reviews. And since then I fell in love with macOS and have stuck with it since.

If you want some phone recommendations the ASUS ROG is pretty cool

 

[school computer user]

From reading your post and looking at your use case I think an s23 ultra would be a good fit for you.

If FaceTime and air drop are the only major blocks and you can use a FaceTime alternative already then I don't think it will be a big deal to jump on Android.

Samsung and Google both have a Find my phone application that you can use on the web from any phone or computer and it works just about the same as a iOS alternative.

I had a iPhone 13 Pro Max and and iPhone 11 Pro Max before it. I loved the 13 Pro Max but iOS 16 kind of killed the excellent battery life, got rid of the wallpaper I used and was buggy. It was a locked phone to T mobile and I was trying to lower my cellphone bill by using another carrier. Long story short I couldn't unlock the phone so I decided to trade it in for a Pixel 7 Pro. I also at the time had a Galaxy s22 plus I got very cheap as a backup phone.

So for me there were a lot more hurdles as I am in the Apple Ecosystem and friends and family use iMessage. I found making the switch there was some adjustments I had to make and some compatibility loss with my Apple devices but nothing I couldn't work around.

Through a Google Fi promotion I was able to buy the s23 ultra on pre order at half price with no trade in. I sold my s22 plus and was able to use that to buy the s23 ultra at half price. Got the bump up to 512gb and 12gb ram.

Coming from an iPhone I had some feelings of I am going to miss the phone. And for a week maybe I did but then I was much happier with the s23u and P7P. The s23u is just a better phone in every way to the iPhone.

The cameras are great with 10x optical zoom. I don't have any issues with shutter lag at all even taking a bunch of photos in fast succession. It is just a much better camera setup than the iPhone 13 Pro Max.

Video quality is excellent and very stable with really good vibration control.

The s23 ultra also has the s pen which if you ever take family photos and have a tripod you can set your phone up on the tri pod and use the s pen several feet away as a shutter button. So you can get a perfect portrait. No other phone can do this.

In terms of calls the s23 series all now have call screening like a Pixel so if you get a spam call you can have Bixby answer the phone for you and ask who is on the other line without having to actually answer the phone. It is a great feature. Not as advanced as Pixel but pretty close.

The screen is amazing. If you don't have a tablet or PC you can use the phone as a tablet with the 6.8" rectangular screen you get maximum use of the screen and it really feels like using a small tablet for content consumption and streaming. The screen is bright and you can adjust the color temperature exactly how you like it which you can't do on an iphone.

The speakers are amazing and have sound that is really rich and loud. It sounds like my iPad. It is that good.

If you wanted to you could use your tv screen and use dex to use the phone like a computer with multiple windows. It is pretty cool and since you don't have a tablet or PC it might come in handy. Obviously it is not as functional as a regular PC or Mac but it is a really good compromise when you need it.

The battery life on the ultra is also really good. I am a very heavy user and using the phone all day for probably 12 hours screen on streaming for several hours, going to Google news and multiple forums, email, texting, etc I had 40% battery at the end of the day and on average I have about 60% battery at the end of the day. The phone last like my iPhone 13 Pro Max used to before iOS 16.

Google has Google Keep notes that works multi platform so you can use it on iOS and syncs with your phone. You can take notes and they save and sync automatically. It is a great app so if you had your iPhone friends and family use keep notes you can instantly send notes to them.

As for airdrop Samsung has a similar application that does the same thing but I am not sure if you could use it on iOS. She would just have to text or email you the files or she could use Google Drive and just upload them to that and you could access the files that way.

Android 13 and OneUI 5.1 is really good. It is very stable and bug free. The amount of customization Samsung allows is amazing. Colors within the OS are themed to match the colors of your wallpaper. I can add gif's to my AOD always on display and to my lock screen or any pictures I want. I am a big Godzilla fan and so I have a gif of Godzilla on my AOD and lockscreen and it is just a lot of fun. There are a ton of other little design tweaks you can make to personalize the phone which you can't do on any other phone.

Samsung updates are pretty fast and you get 4 OS upgrades and 5 years of security patches.

I think you would enjoy the s23 ultra a lot and it would work better for your use case.

The phone is super fast, extremely stable, packed with features, great battery life, great screen, great speakers, great cameras. Samsung really did a good job this year. A lot of reviews on YouTube complain that the outer design didn't change much but they miss all the changes under the hood so to speak that are very major.

The Snapdragon 8 gen 2 is 30-40% faster than last year yet more efficient. Samsung added a bigger heat pipe cooling system as well. The storage is double the speed of last year using ufs 4.0 vs 3.1 and uses half the power. The storage is as fast as NVME SSD and possibly faster. The ram is ddr5x which is 30% faster bandwidth with the same power draw as ddr5 in iPhone, the screen uses less power while still being as bright, the speakers are bigger and better, the design is more flat along the edges and the screen has less of a curve. A lot of refinement went into the design of this phone which makes it a HUGE improvement over last year. The edges are easier to grip making the large phone more comfortable in your hands and because it use armor aluminum it is much lighter than the iPhone 14 pro max. The aluminum is treated to resist scratches better than regular aluminum which is very soft.

Literally the Ultra really lives up to its name, is a pleasure to use and is an Android multi tasking dream.

Lastly price. I am not in Europe so I don't know Samsung pricing but here in the US if you look you can always find much better pricing in Samsung than iPhone. I got my ultra as I stated for under $100 and it is an unlocked phone. I have to use Google Fi for four months and I own the phone free and clear. I paid $599 for it and sold my s22 plus on private market for almost the same price. So if you are willing to do a little research and sell your iPhone on Swappa or other private market alternative you can get the price to an affordable range and have an absolute beast of a phone.

Get it and see for yourself. I am very confident that you will be very happy. There is an adjustment period so use it for over a week exclusively so you can get past any pain points coming from iOS. If you give it enough time you won't go back!

Don't forget the S23 series uses a slightly modified Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 under the name of "Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 For Galaxy" which is faster than the normal 8 Gen 2. This one can go up to 3.36GHz and has 5.3% and 5.7% higher CPU and GPU clock speeds.

 

[school computer user]

Not that the base S23 is bad or anything but the 128GB uses UFS 3.1 so I wouldn't say OP should get it but the 256GB S23 (and higher models) all use UFS 4.0 and is somewhat faster.

I agree the Samsung a54 seems like a nice phone but I have a different take and again if you can find a discount a regular s23 is very nice and I would still say it is better than the a54 because of the snapdragon chipset, faster ram vs Exynos and slower ram.

Both will get the same 4 years of OS upgrades and 5 years of security patches but I think that the a54 is quarterly vs monthly on the base s23.

Flat screen on the s23 too.

But I still think that you shouldn't just test the water. It is the safe choice but also might give you the wrong impression. If you get the s23 or s23 ultra you will really get to experience the best Android has to offer. With the ultra I think it may fit your needs better and would be better to keep longer so the example the poster above gave is still around $300/ euro a year if you only keep it 3 year's.

I don't agree phone's have peaked because every time I use an older phone or mid range phone it feels slow to me. I like having the latest and greatest and since you literally only have a phone and TV I think the ultra will serve you better than anything else.

Sometimes saving money with certain things just isn't worth it. You spend less up front but pay in other ways and since phones are so important in our lives it is one area where I wouldn't try to get a lesser phone to save money. I would rather look for deals and sell my used electronics as high as I could so I could get the newest and best model I could afford. Also if the S23 ultra is half the price roughly of a similar spec iPhone then you are saving a lot right there.

Finally if you keep the iPhone it is going to be harder to make the jump into Android.

I would keep the iPhone until you decide whether or nit you actually like the ultra just in case and then if you do like it , sell the iPhone. Or do a trade in but wait to send it in until you know for sure what direction you want to go i

 

[SteveJUAE]

My take on the OP is that if the price of iPhone is the issue, buying an also expensive Android makes zero sense 😅, thus my idea of getting g the A54 instead (or maybe the S21 FE).

The OP has clearly stated the IP14P/PM is 1740 to 1900 Euro's opposed to he can get a S23 equivalent for 1100 Euros with his employees discount, this level of saving makes perfect sense to me

Why should he choose to compromise to a lower spec as you suggest where he seems comfortable with the 1100 euro price tag for top tier phone, hence the rest of his post

 

[zorinlynx]

I think the way to go would be to try Android and see how you like it. Try to determine if it's for you during the return window for the new phone. If it's not, return it and go back to your iPhone.

I'm a lot more embedded in the ecosystem than you; it would be a painful experience for me to switch, so I stay on iOS. Overall I don't really have many complaints about iOS, and if the various pressures governments are putting on Apple to allow sideloading/alternate app stores succeed, my number one complaint will be gone.

It's all really the same stuff, just done in a slightly different way. I do wish there were something like AirDrop that worked cross-platform between phones. Yeah, there's some apps and such but as soon as you're at the point of telling someone else to install an app just to send you photos, the concept has failed. There's just no good way to quickly send full resolution photos between iPhone and Android without going through the cloud somehow.

 

[tonysoprano]

Hello everyone,

My apologies for the delay but these were some very busy working hours lately lol.

I want to thank you all for the feedback I have received thus far and for your time for sharing your thoughts on what I later on realized was a very extensive post (or wall of text )

Some remarks I would like to share that perhaps were not that clear from my initial post:

Price is not a issue specifically. Like I stated, my phone is my only device and it is perhaps the one thing I use the most on my day to day, everyday.

The issue surrounding price is mostly related to fairness, and like I mentioned here in Europe prices are a bit far from fair… 1500 euros for a 14PM with a ridiculous 128GB is a bit insane.

In terms of options I can say I have shown interest in only the S23 Ultra and the Pixel 7 Pro. However the Pixel is slightly capped here with 5G functionality being locked outside the “oficial” countries where Google operates.

Today I spent roughly 2 hours playing around with a colleagues brand new S23 Ultra, he just upgraded from the Galaxy S10.

I have somewhat mixed feelings about it:

On one side, the screen is amazing. The S-pen even if used occasionally is amazing. Split screen is absolutely amazing and provides such a range of usability that the iPhone does not. Speakers are amazing. It feels insanely fast and smooth overall when switching through apps, opening, closing etc.

On another side, i was not that convinced with the camera tbh. There is shutter lag. It is rather noticeable and I was trying it on 12MP not the (justifiable) slower 200MP mode. And shutter lag on a 1500€ phone that claims to have the best camera in the market kinda puts me off…. Sure you can take amazing landscape and architecture photographs… but I want to take photos of my dogs. Of my family and friends. And those are subjects that move around (specially dogs).
Then the size of the phone… I felt that it was more uncomfortable that the 14 PM. Because it has very sharp corners all around. I can honestly say this will eventually rip through older jeans like a drill lol. Even holding the phone with one hand, does not feel very ergonomic.
Lastly… I still, even after all these years, have considerable reservations towards android. Why does the phone have 2 messages apps. Two calendar apps. Two browsers. Two contacts apps. Bunch of Samsung bloatware. There is adds even in the Samsung browser homepage? Notifications for adds from Samsung?
Settings are so so so extensive. So many things. I see the positive of being able to change everything but seems to me settings are far from straightforward. Every setting has a toggle but if you click on it you go to another list of additional settings. Like a maze lol.

This was my impressions from 2 hours of experimenting until my colleague asked me for his phone back!

So overall I am sitting in a very awkward position. Looking at my iPhone 13 base model right now and I feel like it is not the most modern technology one can have (S23 ultra I would say) but it is incredibly stable, easygoing and sufficient. I don’t see how I could justify the 14P or 14PM, being that they would rip my wallet if 1300 to 1700€.

 

[tonysoprano]

We are at Peak Phone. Every upgrade is a minor iteration. They all blend together a bit. You won't get huge advances in a single generation, but they add up over time.

I love my S23, but it's kind of an S22 with better battery life. Which wasn't all that different from an S21. So it goes...

Yes I feel you and that is basically the feeling I have jumping from one iPhone to the other ranging from the 12 to the 14 series.

 

[tonysoprano]

From reading your post and looking at your use case I think an s23 ultra would be a good fit for you.

If FaceTime and air drop are the only major blocks and you can use a FaceTime alternative already then I don't think it will be a big deal to jump on Android.

Samsung and Google both have a Find my phone application that you can use on the web from any phone or computer and it works just about the same as a iOS alternative.

I had a iPhone 13 Pro Max and and iPhone 11 Pro Max before it. I loved the 13 Pro Max but iOS 16 kind of killed the excellent battery life, got rid of the wallpaper I used and was buggy. It was a locked phone to T mobile and I was trying to lower my cellphone bill by using another carrier. Long story short I couldn't unlock the phone so I decided to trade it in for a Pixel 7 Pro. I also at the time had a Galaxy s22 plus I got very cheap as a backup phone.

So for me there were a lot more hurdles as I am in the Apple Ecosystem and friends and family use iMessage. I found making the switch there was some adjustments I had to make and some compatibility loss with my Apple devices but nothing I couldn't work around.

Through a Google Fi promotion I was able to buy the s23 ultra on pre order at half price with no trade in. I sold my s22 plus and was able to use that to buy the s23 ultra at half price. Got the bump up to 512gb and 12gb ram.

Coming from an iPhone I had some feelings of I am going to miss the phone. And for a week maybe I did but then I was much happier with the s23u and P7P. The s23u is just a better phone in every way to the iPhone.

The cameras are great with 10x optical zoom. I don't have any issues with shutter lag at all even taking a bunch of photos in fast succession. It is just a much better camera setup than the iPhone 13 Pro Max.

Video quality is excellent and very stable with really good vibration control.

The s23 ultra also has the s pen which if you ever take family photos and have a tripod you can set your phone up on the tri pod and use the s pen several feet away as a shutter button. So you can get a perfect portrait. No other phone can do this.

In terms of calls the s23 series all now have call screening like a Pixel so if you get a spam call you can have Bixby answer the phone for you and ask who is on the other line without having to actually answer the phone. It is a great feature. Not as advanced as Pixel but pretty close.

The screen is amazing. If you don't have a tablet or PC you can use the phone as a tablet with the 6.8" rectangular screen you get maximum use of the screen and it really feels like using a small tablet for content consumption and streaming. The screen is bright and you can adjust the color temperature exactly how you like it which you can't do on an iphone.

The speakers are amazing and have sound that is really rich and loud. It sounds like my iPad. It is that good.

If you wanted to you could use your tv screen and use dex to use the phone like a computer with multiple windows. It is pretty cool and since you don't have a tablet or PC it might come in handy. Obviously it is not as functional as a regular PC or Mac but it is a really good compromise when you need it.

The battery life on the ultra is also really good. I am a very heavy user and using the phone all day for probably 12 hours screen on streaming for several hours, going to Google news and multiple forums, email, texting, etc I had 40% battery at the end of the day and on average I have about 60% battery at the end of the day. The phone last like my iPhone 13 Pro Max used to before iOS 16.

Google has Google Keep notes that works multi platform so you can use it on iOS and syncs with your phone. You can take notes and they save and sync automatically. It is a great app so if you had your iPhone friends and family use keep notes you can instantly send notes to them.

As for airdrop Samsung has a similar application that does the same thing but I am not sure if you could use it on iOS. She would just have to text or email you the files or she could use Google Drive and just upload them to that and you could access the files that way.

Android 13 and OneUI 5.1 is really good. It is very stable and bug free. The amount of customization Samsung allows is amazing. Colors within the OS are themed to match the colors of your wallpaper. I can add gif's to my AOD always on display and to my lock screen or any pictures I want. I am a big Godzilla fan and so I have a gif of Godzilla on my AOD and lockscreen and it is just a lot of fun. There are a ton of other little design tweaks you can make to personalize the phone which you can't do on any other phone.

Samsung updates are pretty fast and you get 4 OS upgrades and 5 years of security patches.

I think you would enjoy the s23 ultra a lot and it would work better for your use case.

The phone is super fast, extremely stable, packed with features, great battery life, great screen, great speakers, great cameras. Samsung really did a good job this year. A lot of reviews on YouTube complain that the outer design didn't change much but they miss all the changes under the hood so to speak that are very major.

The Snapdragon 8 gen 2 is 30-40% faster than last year yet more efficient. Samsung added a bigger heat pipe cooling system as well. The storage is double the speed of last year using ufs 4.0 vs 3.1 and uses half the power. The storage is as fast as NVME SSD and possibly faster. The ram is ddr5x which is 30% faster bandwidth with the same power draw as ddr5 in iPhone, the screen uses less power while still being as bright, the speakers are bigger and better, the design is more flat along the edges and the screen has less of a curve. A lot of refinement went into the design of this phone which makes it a HUGE improvement over last year. The edges are easier to grip making the large phone more comfortable in your hands and because it use armor aluminum it is much lighter than the iPhone 14 pro max. The aluminum is treated to resist scratches better than regular aluminum which is very soft.

Literally the Ultra really lives up to its name, is a pleasure to use and is an Android multi tasking dream.

Lastly price. I am not in Europe so I don't know Samsung pricing but here in the US if you look you can always find much better pricing in Samsung than iPhone. I got my ultra as I stated for under $100 and it is an unlocked phone. I have to use Google Fi for four months and I own the phone free and clear. I paid $599 for it and sold my s22 plus on private market for almost the same price. So if you are willing to do a little research and sell your iPhone on Swappa or other private market alternative you can get the price to an affordable range and have an absolute beast of a phone.

Get it and see for yourself. I am very confident that you will be very happy. There is an adjustment period so use it for over a week exclusively so you can get past any pain points coming from iOS. If you give it enough time you won't go back!

A fellow European here, and I feel you with the iPhone prices. They've become rather ridiculous especially after this "exchange rate adjustment" Apple pulled with the iPhone 14 series and increased at least the pro model prices by around 170 euros. Now there are rumors that Apple's going to do some actual price increases with the iPhone 15 line, so I'm more than a little bit afraid of what they're going to cost around here.



That missing 5G availability together with the lack of features such as VoLTE and VoWiFi here in Finland has been a bummer regarding the Pixel line, but now we've got 5G on one carrier in the update, so there's a little hope that in the near future also the Pixel line could be a real contender soon. I've had a couple of Pixels and I really liked the camera, but currently I can't really use a phone that doesn't support VoWiFi as my daily carry, so I'm eagerly waiting for Google to fix that.



Yep, SnapDragon availability was what made me upgrade from my otherwise fine S22+ to the S23+. I had a my share of most likely Exynos-induced hiccups with my S22+, so finally getting Samsung SnapDragon flagships here was a most welcome improvement. With both phones I also considered the Ultra, but eventually settled for the Plus version thanks to the flat screen (I've had some phones with curved screens and it's always been a huge minus usability-wise despite looking fancy) and more manageable size (my current iPhone is the 13 Pro), even though the camera differences lured me towards the huge model.



Second that. The lack of iMessage is a complete non-issue here and even when using an iPhone primarily I've often had iMessage turned off to prevent my messages getting stuck in a limbo after switching platforms once again.



Google Photos shared albums? That's how I often share photos to my wife who's mainly on the iPhone.



I wouldn't look for a platform-specific replacement for a platform-specific feature but rather do away with the platform tie-in completely. I've been a 1Password user for years and it's been serving me well regardless of whether I've been on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and lately even on Linux.



Well, for me I currently have both the iPhone 13 Pro and the S23+, but it's the S23+ where my primary SIM has been living since I got it, since previously it was in the S22+. While some apps are better on iOS, I like the split-screen multitasking on Android as well as more flexible mobile payments. We have Apple Pay here, but if I want to use loyalty cards in pretty much any store chain, I can't do that with Apple Pay but pay with the much more cumbersome MobilePay app instead. With my S23+ an app takes care of the loyalty card in the two largest chain and hands over the actual payment to Google Pay.

That 1100 euros for a 512GB Ultra is a nice price as well. The official price tags of the latest Samsungs are rather high, too, but the trick is that you shouldn't pay those as a deal is almost always available. I paid 999e for my 512GB S23+ on pre-order even though the official retail price is 1399€. The iPhone 14 Pro with the same storage would be 1739€.

As literally a single device user all you are going to miss is familiarity and just a bit of time initially swapping some things over to say OneDrive or google photo for sharing access with your GF

Do not underestimate other stealth savings on running cost you also benefit with Samsung this can easily be another 1-200 euros per year/phone on top of your employers discount. Especially as you are a regular phone buyer.

Apps, subscriptions are usually cheaper and OEM accessories, cases, screen protectors are often bundled or heavily discounted. 2nd hand values of Apple vs Android are largely irrelevant consideration outside of US and offset by the stealth savings that seem to be conveniently missed by most comparisons as its true running cost that count not sticker prices

If your employer has Free Office365 for employees you get 1TB of cloud storage

You seem an ideal candidate for being brand neutral but money wise

Thank you guys for the detailed feedback.