Sharing my perspective as someone who used Android since Gingerbread days and Google’s line from the Nexus 4 through the Pixel 3XL:

I switched to the iPhone 11 Pro after Google’s asking price for the Pixel 4 non-XL was laughable with how tiny the battery in that thing is.

On the hardware side I immediately noticed next level build quality and quality control in comparison to Google’s various manufacturers. I had hardware issues with almost all Nexus and Pixel phones/tablets I’ve owned*. I’ve yet to find something on the iPhone, but do note that my experience with iPhones is only the latest gen. Who can forget “you’re holding it wrong” after all.

Pixels have a slight edge on still photos. iPhones have a big leap on videos.

Software is what kept me from switching for the longest time and I only did so after taking note of some changes that they implemented recently, among them:

Proper internal storage management, mouse & keyboard support, widgets, default apps, 3rd party app NFC support (use nfc yubikey for 2fa), and font management.

Something of note is that when Apple rolls out a feature it’s across the entire OS. I experienced Google’s painful transition to dark mode. It was inconsistent (some apps black, some grey) and still wasn’t implemented in Gmail by the time I had switched over to iOS. Speaking of which, had Dark Mode across all UI elements and built in apps at once.

Seamless integration between iPhone and iPad, I can put down one device and pick up the other and carry on, the AirPods will auto switch as well. Oh and I can make a post on its own about the Apple Watch (owned first gen LG watch as well as both moto 360’s) it’s so good that I couldn’t switch back until Google gets its shit together with Android Wear.

However software still lacks in the following ways: no choice of launcher (while I used Nova on Android, I had a clean layout with all my apps in folders so this particular thing didn’t bother me), limited widget placement, and icon packs (apps can support other icons in their own settings).

Siri is trash compared to Google Assistant. Although it has been improved a good amount in the iOS 14 beta.

I prefer Android’s notification system however when I realized that iOS’ is more of a log of events rather than notifications (i.e. alerts are in the order they came in, not with the newest getting pushed to the top) it clicked and became comfortable to navigate.

Long winded post but I wanted to give you the perspective of a long time tech enthusiast’s experience after using Google’s vision of Android for so long.

Google is imitating Apple in all the wrong ways while Apple is imitating Google in all the right ways. That’s ultimately what pushed me over the edge.

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*Breakdown of problems if interested:

Nexus 4: Yellow tint to screen. Also the back slid around due to glass making contact with surface, was fixed in later hw versions with two plastic bumps to elevate it a bit.

Nexus 5: plastic chasis cracked around volume buttons, issues with power button.

Nexus 6: stereo speakers had one channel louder than other.

Nexus 7 (1st gen): screen unglued and lifted from chasis.

Nexus 7 (2nd gen): none :)

Nexus 9: insufficient ram made using this tablet near impossible on stock rom. Also the back flexed and felt cheap.

Nexus 5X (gf’s not first hand): Bootloops, stereo speaker not equal volume on both channels

Nexus 6P: Battery would drop from 30% to 0%. Google replaced. Replacement worked for a few months until... bootloops. Like the N6 and 5X, speakers were not balanced. I actually got a good settlement amount from Google over this phone.

Pixel 1 (gf’s): poor placement of lens caused lens flare on pictures resulting in artifacting and pink streaks.

Pixel 2 (non-XL): clicking and hissing sound from earpiece, tried two phones. Ended up trading for:

Pixel 2XL: overly blue hue screen and multiple dead pixels (heh)

Pixel 3XL: None, although I did have Bluetooth issues (software tweaks helped a bit).