I am an iPhone and Android user. Doing a significant part of the analysis in Xataka, I spend more than half the month with the mobiles I test and the rest with my personal iPhone 13 Pro. I’ve been using iPhone since 7 and I feel like a change. Not because it’s a better Android, not because the iPhone is worse. I simply want to have an Android as a personal cell phone, at least for a while.

how hard is that and how badly manufacturers have done away with compact mobile phones. I want to explain why I find it so hard to find a replacement, why I’m locked into the Apple ecosystem, and why nothing seems to change in the short term.

my point of view is passionate technology. If a cell phone convinces me, I’ll buy it, no matter what operating system you have. I’m looking forward to this as much as possible to avoid the hacked Apple vs Android war in the comments where such articles are so inviting.

size drama

Finding compact mobiles on Android is a drama. Find high-end compact mobile phones they didn’t give up features from his brothers, impossible. Why is there no S22 Ultra under six inches? Why no little Pixel Pro? The closest thing to an iPhone 13 Pro right now is a Samsung Galaxy S22 or an ASUS Zenfone 9.

ASUS lacks a telephoto lens (a very important point for me) so it’s a bit of an understatement, and while the S22 is a great device, it’s far from the S22 Ultra. For physical reasons, the only difference between the iPhone 13 Pro and the iPhone 13 Pro Max is the battery. Otherwise, you’re buying the company’s best phone, regardless of size.

Android manufacturers do not follow this philosophy. If you buy the smaller cell phone, you buy the worse cell phone. Forcing you into gigantic models to enjoy the best puts us who want compact phones in a difficult position. I want the best but I want it in pocket format.

I don’t want to carry Powerbank with me

A few years ago, if you have an iPhone, there were whole memes about living glued to the charger. No longer rivals the iPhone in terms of size/autonomy. The Pro Max outperforms its rivals (another thing is fast charging), and there’s no compact handset that comes close to the iPhone 13 Pro’s numbers.

A meager 3,095 mAh iPhone 13 Pro gives me better results than a few high-end Android phones with 5,000 mAh. But I don’t want to get into a war of screen hours and numbers here. Let’s put aside the iPhone 13 Pro lasted me all day, My experience with small phones on Android was terrible. Sweating blood to spend the night with some battery left.

I don’t understand what’s wrong with android and video

Another key point for me is to monetize both entertainment and content on social networks, Is it a video recording? geared towards a more professional level. There are bases on Android that do this well, but the iPhone is sweeping. needless to say Quality is negligible when uploading content to RRSS with Android. The bitrate is dropping, I even observed color loss while analyzing the histogram and the audio compression is terrible.

First world issues affecting the minimum percentage of users. But I am among them. As an interesting anecdote, a month I uploaded content to TikTok with Android I experienced more than 50% drop in visits. After returning to the iPhone, I was back to my usual tricks. The algorithm analyzes the quality of the videos and rewards the highest quality.

Apple knows how to lock you into its ecosystem

I hate the word “ecosystem” when it comes to Apple. It has become a rather fanatical term reflecting that we cannot connect our devices if we have Android and Windows. But I understand why this is talked about so muchbecause Apple knows very well how to lock you into this ecosystem.

In my tests, AirDrop’s transfer rate was Came to surpass that of an Android with UFS 3.1 memory connected to PC via C cable. Universal clipboard where products connect simply by zooming in to the phone (copy a text on Mac and paste it on iPhone and vice versa), use iPhone natively as webcam on PC…

Even mundane products like AirTags are far from competitors like the SmartTag (which needs a virtual miracle to find a device). And it goes without saying, with the cost of Apple products, I’m not convinced by the idea that if I leave their ecosystem, I won’t be able to use them..

Then there is the matter Not all apps you pay for on iPhone are purchased on Android. We’re talking hundreds of euros here that I’ll have to pay again after years of using Apple. Terrible.

Out of reach Apple crap

and then they Nonsense. Each user has their own. My colleague Javier Pastor missed the Always On Display in the month he was using the iPhone 13 Pro, was not entirely happy with the location system and was unable to enjoy the promised benefits, especially since he was outside of the Apple ecosystem. Understandably, the grace of using an iPhone is that the rest of the products in the house are from Apple.

Of course, I also have hobbies. I find the Android gesture system horrible. For example, in applications such as Twitter, It’s easy to call up the side menu when what we want is to go back. On the other hand, except for the Google Pixel, the camera preview does not show HDR, so it all looks burned out until you open the photo in the gallery.

Apple knows how to take care Nonsense. At the beginning of the week, I traveled in a group, all carrying the boarding pass on the phone. Some experienced problems because it was in low brightness and the reader boarding pass. When we open the wallet with QR on iPhone, the brightness increases automatically. Real bullshit, yes, but bullshit that all manufacturers should implement and make life easier.

This list is as endless as it is subjective, so I am summarizing that there are a number of automatic functions at Apple that make the user experience great in aspects Android has completely forgotten.

Each one belongs to his father and mother, or so they say.

With this text, it is unlikely that any loyal Android user will realize how easy life is with an iPhone. Just as it is unlikely that anyone will convince an iPhone user that their Android does the same thing for less money.

I’ve tried but there’s no way to free myself from Apple’s clutches. Like a little kid, I continue to enjoy every Android I analyze, but the iPhone will still be in my pocket for a while.