Welp, I purchased an iPhone once more

It takes every week to change telephones. First, there’s the technical technique of transferring eSIMs throughout gadgets, which takes both a couple of minutes (should you’re switching from one Android telephone to a different) or two days, a half-dozen calls to Verizon, a verification textual content message despatched to your mother, and roughly 11,000 restarts of your telephone (should you’re switching from iPhone to Android). Then comes just a few hours of app downloading, settings tweaking, and personalization, as a result of each telephone has a bunch of distinctive concepts about all the things.

You might be up and operating on a brand new telephone in a day, however by the point you’ve downloaded all of your Kindle books, synced your podcast queue, moved all of your two-factor code mills, and reconnected to all of your Bluetooth gadgets, it can have been every week.

I do know this, as a result of I spent the previous couple of months switching telephones nearly each week. I’d grown bored with my iPhone 16, a telephone I purchased virtually solely as a result of it was blue, and determined to see what different choices I actually had. I’m additionally in an uncommon place: I was a telephone reviewer, which meant I spent almost a decade switching telephones each few months, however for the final 5 years or so I’ve been virtually solely an iPhone consumer. I believe I qualify as a traditional telephone proprietor at this level. But I do have one distinct benefit: I can ask a bunch of telephone producers to ship me their gadgets to check, and a few of them will! So I spent the winter on a Tour de Android, seeking to see whether or not there was a telephone — or, extra thrilling, a complete new idea for a telephone — that may entice me.

I’ll simply spoil the tip: Last week, I went to the Apple Store and acquired an iPhone 17. I do know, I do know. I’m not thrilled about it both. But I can clarify.

_{For much more of our ideas on the state of telephones, try this episode of The Vergecast.}

The first telephone I examined was the one for which I had the very best hopes: the Motorola Razr Ultra. I stay satisfied that flip telephones are a good suggestion, and that the mix of smartwatch-style outer display with a normal-sized inside display is a compelling one. The Razr Ultra’s {hardware} is fairly near proper, at the very least for my functions. Flipped open, the telephone is somewhat tall, and might be onerous to navigate with one thumb, however that’s true of each large telephone now. I didn’t thoughts the slight crease within the center, and I like the squareish form of the telephone when it’s closed. I discovered myself treating the closed telephone like a tiny Gemini-specific walkie-talkie — deliver the telephone as much as my mouth, maintain the facet button, and ask inane questions on cherry blossoms.

The drawback, which might change into a theme in my assessments, was the software program. Neither Motorola nor Google has figured flip telephones out. There are just a few helpful widgets for the outer display, however the group system for them makes it onerous so as to add or discover stuff. More typically than not, what you get on the outer display is simply the full-bore Android app smushed down small, which is all nicely and good till the keyboard opens and covers up the message you’re responding to and the textual content field you’re typing in. Even if I may get previous that, I ultimately couldn’t take all of the “allow this app to access the external display?” warnings. Some apps handle to shrink and broaden nicely sufficient, whereas others simply shrug and demand you open up the telephone. I spent days altering settings, downloading utility apps, making an attempt to make the Razr Ultra really feel seamless. It by no means did. So I switched.

I had a barely totally different expertise with my foldable telephone, a Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold. (I attempted to get my fingers on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, by most accounts one of the best foldable in the marketplace, however couldn’t get one in time.) My foldable drawback is all {hardware}: The telephone feels large and blocky in my fingers, it’s not simple sufficient to pry the factor open, and foldables include numerous sturdiness, battery, and digital camera sacrifices. I did take pleasure in having the bigger inside display for watching YouTube movies and a bunch of Champions League soccer. But confronted with this many sacrifices — and the eye-watering $2,000-ish value that comes with each foldable telephone — I gave up on Bigger Screen.

Next I attempted the Unihertz Titan 2, an oblong monster of a telephone with an enormous, roomy bodily keyboard. It felt like utilizing a BlackBerry once more! I found virtually instantly that I don’t miss utilizing a BlackBerry — whereas I beloved having the keyboard for fast entry to numbers and symbols, I by no means typed as quick on the bodily keyboard as I did on the display. Plus, this telephone is simply gigantic (which is why I’m intrigued by the a lot smaller Titan 2 Elite coming later this 12 months).

My single favourite new Android expertise got here from the Fairphone Gen 6, a typically stable telephone with one exceptional function: a bodily slider change that transforms the system into a way more locked-down, minimalist tackle a telephone. Fairphone calls this function “Moments,” and it’s superior. You can have just a few totally different moments, every with whichever handful of apps you choose; I spent numerous time with my telephone winnowed to Phone, Messages, Maps, Pocket Casts, and nothing else, and it was wonderful. Everything else — even your wallpaper — disappears. It’s probably the most compelling model of the two-phones-in-one expertise I’ve wished for perpetually, and it actually works.

The Fairphone had only one drawback: It’s not likely optimized for US protection, and doesn’t work absolutely on Verizon. So that’s out.

My subsequent and final check was the Google Pixel 10 Pro, which is definitely my favourite Android telephone of all time. It’s somewhat heavy, however very well made; the digital camera is great in virtually any situations; I like having each fingerprint and face authentication; Pixel telephones almost at all times have the cleanest and most feature-rich model of Android. (Though my Pixel nonetheless doesn’t have Gemini process automation…)

The Pixel 10 Pro solidified a sense I’d been having by all of my assessments: Android is a greater working system than iOS. Gemini is a helpful and usable voice assistant, neither of which you’ll say about Siri. Android is great at sorting and triaging notifications, which meant far fewer buzzes in my pocket. I additionally received far fewer spam and robocalls throughout my testing, which was an surprising however good change — I truly began answering calls from unknown numbers once more, as a result of they have been virtually at all times calls I truly wished. I just like the Android keyboard higher than the iPhone, partly as a result of its autocorrect is so a lot better.

There are so many little variations between Android and iOS that may make it onerous to change between gadgets, however I choose the Android implementation in virtually each case. You can customise all the things about your Android homescreen simply, whereas even dragging apps round on an iPhone is a crazy-making expertise. Android’s app tray makes extra sense than the bizarrely organized iOS App Library; swiping down for notifications and up for search is easier than swiping down from totally different components of the iPhone display for all the things. And did I point out how a lot better Gemini is? When I’m utilizing Android, I truly use my voice assistant. On goal! What a world.

If all you bought out of your telephone was the out-of-the-box expertise, I’d have picked the Pixel. But sadly for Android, app shops exist. And the App Store completely wipes the ground with the Play Store. Lots of the apps I take advantage of every single day — apps like Puzzmo, NotePlan, Mimestream, and Unread — both don’t exist on Android in any respect or solely exist as net apps. Most of those that do work on each platforms are higher on iOS. And neglect concerning the sort of handcrafted, small-developer stuff — apps like Acme Weather, Current, and Quiche, simply to call just a few current favorites — that’s all around the App Store and completely nowhere to be discovered on Android.

Android apps solely have one benefit: They’re allowed to do issues iOS apps merely can’t. The Beeper app, which I take advantage of for messaging throughout platforms and gadgets, integrates fantastically with Google Messages and in no way with iMessage. I can do extra with my Pebble watch when it’s linked to an Android telephone. The Tasker app is an automator’s dream. But for all the things else, and for nearly each app folks use, iOS is healthier.

There are loads of causes the Play Store can’t sustain. The Android ecosystem is extra diversified and thus more durable to develop for; most builders use Apple merchandise; iPhone homeowners are apparently for no matter cause way more keen to spend cash than Android homeowners. But the actual fact of the matter, and the factor I spotted most on the finish of my phone-switching experiment, is that telephones are app machines above all else. And the iPhone has higher apps.

And so, on the finish of all of it, I went by one other bizarrely difficult eSIM change and upgraded to an iPhone 17. This is one of the best the bottom iPhone has been in a while, and my iPhone 16 trade-in offset about half the price. I’m not thrilled with it, actually. My telephone is again to buzzing too typically with robocalls and pointless notifications, and I’m again to combating with Apple’s ridiculous homescreen structure instruments. Siri continues to be horrible. But till and until AI adjustments the way in which we do all the things on our gadgets, my telephone stays an app machine. All my apps are right here on this iPhone, and so they all work.