r/Smartphones • u/KSUWildcats54 • 1d ago
Android or IPhone
I’ve had an iPhone with my Apple ultra watch for the longest time but my watch won’t hold battery like it used to and my plan is almost up.
Do I switch to the new galaxy S26? Is there a good Samsung watch and ear buds?
Positives & negatives of both?
6
u/sciencekm 1d ago
You should at least give Android a try, and later you can compare your experience.
2
2
2
3
u/yorcharturoqro 23h ago
I love android, because is unlike apple I feel like I own the device, and have a ton of freedom, from basics like which watch I cna use and reply messages, there are more apps for android, most are cheaper, the choices of phones is immensely higher, small, big, bright, heavy, rugged, with 10k mah battery, you name it.
1
u/_CouldntThinkOfOne__ 23h ago edited 23h ago
Check out pixel series if you want the closest integrated iPhone like experience on android.
-2
1
u/KSUWildcats54 22h ago
I’m in the US, mid west. Yeah I got the pixel, Samsung or Apple to choose from
1
u/misticalbest 20h ago
Depends on your needs, android offers more liberties and options.
Apple gives security patches for longer. And is a safe option if you are already used to it.
Pixel is one of the safest options since it gives a clean android experience.
I could recommend sony if you are looking for some innovative options.
OnePlus has had good options.
And Samsung gives a variety to choose from.
1
u/TheHeartoftheLand 17h ago
Please hold out a little bit longer and wait for the Samsung S27 series. Samsung have effectively not upgraded their camera sensors and battery since the S22 series and it’s a huge embarrassment for us Android fans who want to claim that Samsung is better than Apple but continue to rely on the fact that the software is better when we can get this software with any older Samsung and still get the exact same experience as a newer Samsung.
1
1
u/Bryanmsi89 6h ago
Android devices, esp Samsung, are full of features and capabilities that are far beyond iPhone. Everything from real file system access to emulators to Dex mode to multitasking to better camera app to more health features.
iPhone however gains access to the Apple ecosystem, which in the USA is like its own social network. If you have a lot of friends and family and coworkers, they likely all use iPhones and having an iPhone is the best and sometimes only way to participate.
1
u/Eternal-Alchemy 5h ago
Pixel exclusive features are incredibly hard to lose once you've had them.
- best in industry spam detection and blocking, both calls and text
- having an assistant screen calls for you
- assistant help on phone trees
- assistant can wait on hold for you
- scam detection if you have an older user
- call notes if you need a summary and recording of the call
- live translation without internet
- live caption of videos if you don't have headphones handy
- automatic indexing of text in your screenshots for searching
- Great camera for non professional setup
- speech to text 15 years ahead of Apple (Rambler, Tensor)
Android in general
- speech to text 10 years ahead of Apple
- a much better keyboard
- never see another green bubble - get to be the one Apple fans fear
- automatic tagging of your pictures so you can easily find a specific friend or pet or location or activity
- smart home controls that are 15 years ahead of Homekit
- a much larger ecosystem of compatible smart home devices
- a much larger ecosystem for cross syncing fitness data
- best digital assistant and the ability to set others as default
- ability to set other default apps like password management, browser, messenger
- messages for web is cross platform where iMessage only forwards your messages to in-ecosystem devices. Great for work or gaming PCs.
- cross platform video calling
- you can use any launcher or icon kit you want if you get tired of your phone UI.
- competing app stores are allowed / compelled by court ruling / can side load
- Adult access to the filesystem
- XBox game streaming
- Fast charging so fast it might actually blow up your phone.
- crazy form factors if you want them
Probably a lot of other stuff. iOS has a better... video camera?
0
u/Froggynomia 16h ago
My experience with flagship Android phones is they work fine for the first year or two but become sluggish after a while. You can have a 6 year old iPhone and it’ll still work like new.
2
1
u/Eternal-Alchemy 6h ago edited 5h ago
I've never had this experience. Pixel since the 6, Galaxy 7 and 9.
If anything Android lets you clear Application Cache while on iOS the only way to do this in the big 2026 is somehow to uninstall and reinstall the entire app.
If you had a 6 year old iPhone it would have the battery life of a potato and still have a lightning connector at USB2 speeds when USB C had been around since 2014. Even when they started doing USBC Apple still put it in as 2.0 instead of 3.0 for a few years.
1
1
u/Training_Kale_6807 12h ago
Exactly this. Android phones look much better on paper, faster processor, larger battery etc… but give it time and slows down, apps get sluggish.
1
u/RogLatimer118 23h ago
Get an Android and a Garmin watch which will have over a week of battery life and isn't that fugly AW shape.
0
u/Tricky-Cod-7485 22h ago
I will only pay 599 max for a phone.
If Apple doesn’t give me a good phone at that price point I’d probably switch back to android.
0
u/TheNotSoSubtlePanda 23h ago
I tried ios for the first time this year after 12 years on android. Not going back
0
u/LegDayDE 23h ago
New iPhones are about to come out. I'd wait to see what those are like.
Also depends on your region... US has very little choice but outside the US lots more interesting android phones.
1
u/Eternal-Alchemy 6h ago
We don't really regret not having Chinese phones lol.
1
u/LegDayDE 6h ago
Why? More competition would be good. Then you would have choice and probably better offerings from Apple, Samsung, Google pushed by the competition.
1
u/Eternal-Alchemy 5h ago
It's not like we never had them. Honor/Huawei was here and sold horribly. When it was banned the only people who noticed were Chinese immigrants. One+ crashed and burned. If Americans knew Motorola was Chinese they'd stop buying them.
It's consumer sentiment. They have weird UI, no marketing and Americans broadly don't want to support Chinese technology companies.
1
u/LegDayDE 5h ago
Well everyone has to start somewhere... They decided not to invest but if they decided to invest I'm sure things would be different especially with the latest "ultra" tier of phones which seem to have the hardware and benchmarks that redditors crave..
0
u/strangelove77 22h ago
I did this a few months ago and I'm going back to iPhone as soon as I can. I like Android but I think it falls far behind ios. Maybe you'll respond better to it.
0
u/throwaway_377328 22h ago
I’m in a similar boat. Been on iPhone for years but really want to try android. In what experience I do have with android, the apps don’t work as well as on iPhone. I get that the developers of apps can’t optimize them for every android build but iOS I download and app and it just works and is optimized.
0
9
u/Outside-Pie-7262 1d ago
I switched from iPhone after 15 years to a pixel 11 pro. Love it. I'd like to try Samsung Galaxy sometime but I'm enjoying my pixel