Why iPhone users shift on Google pixel 7?

After years of loyalty to Apple, a lifelong iPhone user decides to switch to Google Pixel 7 Pro. Read on to learn why this individual made the change and how their experience has been so far.

For many years, Apple has been the dominant force in the smartphone market. Their iPhones have been the go-to choice for millions of users worldwide, and it’s not hard to see why.

With sleek designs, user-friendly interfaces, and a plethora of features, Apple has managed to maintain a strong grip on the industry.

However, even the most loyal of customers may eventually decide to try something new, and that’s exactly what happened when this lifelong iPhone user switched to the Google Pixel 7 Pro.

I have been an iPhone person for as lengthy as they’ve bought iPhones, and for all intents and purposes, I’m an Apple Fanboy.

But, like many, I’ve been getting a bit bored of it.

Apple has used the identical design, the identical features, they’re sluggish to undertake new technology, and the ecosystem… Never do I experience greater trapped than when I hear that word.

In the closing few months, I have been exploring the opportunity that the Pixel 7 Pro would possibly be the machine that eventually – sure sooner or later – encourages me to make a entire transition to Android. And spoiler alert, I have absolutely switched to Android, however it’s now not what you assume it is.

The Appeal of the Google Pixel 7 Pro:

Firstly, when watching or listening to content that doesn’t have subtitles, you can switch on transcription on the Pixel for it to do it for you. No matter which app you’re using.

Secondly, I work with some clients overseas and help them create video content, and I’ve used Pixel to translate what they’re saying in their videos so I can provide them with feedback.

And for me, one of the flagship features that I was interested in is the Google Assistant service which can screen your calls, make bookings, and waits on hold for you.

Now, these aspects seem to be and sound like they work truely nicely in the US. But right here in the UK, at least in my experience, it hasn’t been AS desirable as I’d hoped.

The UK voice you hear sounds very robotic in evaluation to the US voice, and that’s additionally highly apparent when you use name screening, the place the Pixel will reply the telephone for you and ask matters like who’s calling. Google Assistant will then transcribe what they respond with so you can faucet on the display screen to both take delivery of the name or you can get the Assistant to ask them no longer to name again.

And so for me, with the Google Assistant answering calls, 9/10 times, the caller will simply hold up even as the Pixel is midway thru talking.

Here in the UK, we additionally don’t get the points the place Google Assistant will continue to be on preserve for you when you name say, the Doctor or someplace the place you have to wait in a queue. And we don’t get the function that received me simply excited a couple of years in the past with the Pixel 6, the place the Pixel will name to make a reserving on your behalf, sounding definitely natural, even with the uhms and ahhs that human beings make when making appointments.

Not being from the US, I don’t surely comprehend if it’s successful of doing that yet. Maybe let me understand down in the remarks if it can or can’t – I’d love to know.

Other minor facets that I prefer to point out here. Back Tap – I love that I can set my pixel up to double-tap the again of the cellphone to set off the flashlight! It’s a easy however well-implemented characteristic that I use each single day.

Whereas over on the iPhone, we have elements such as Dynamic Island.

Honestly, I understand there’s a lot of love and hate for Dynamic Island – however lately there have been some certainly true use instances that I have ignored from the Pixel.
And as a ways as ‘Flagship features’ go on the iPhone 14, that’s kinda been it for me. Again any other motive why a lot of iPhone customers I recognize are thinking about a change to Android.

There has been one characteristic that is nevertheless very a great deal a sticking factor for me, though, and it comes down to my desire of laptop computer and desktop, which is, at least for now, a Mac.

And that sticking factor is their seamless Copy and Paste. Most regularly used to simply reproduction cellphone numbers from one display screen to some other or replica images, or archives – I can replica some thing on my pc – hit Cmd C, and paste it on my iPhone.

There are workarounds for this on the Android platform, however they require you to go to unique web sites and installation a number of apps that simply don’t work as seamlessly.

Which brings me to that phrase again, the Ecosystem.

Ecosystem

And for me this is a virtually brief one.

Facetime – Most current video calls I’ve had have been over WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger so that’s no longer a large problem for me.

iMessage – I thinking it would be a large trouble for me, however solely a small range of conversations have been nonetheless the usage of iMessage, and most of these had been effortless to pass over to WhatsApp.

I decide upon to use Signal considering the fact that it’s greater impervious and encrypted – however I observed that a more difficult promote due to the fact you have to get your pals to set up and signal up for a total new app when they have some thing like WhatsApp already established and working.

Photos are the different one – and Google Photos works simply as properly as Apple Photos and their ecosystem.

In fact, I’d even say that it’s better. It’s higher organised, you can search on relatively a good deal some thing about the image to locate them, and its utilities has in reality precise hints like shifting a tonne of historic screenshots – matters I normally do to simply ship to anyone and then in no way care to see again, transferring them to an archive, simply receives them off my essential digicam roll.

So for me, as some distance as the Apple Ecosystem goes, it’s no longer a huge issue, Apart from the replica and paste and additionally the Watch – which we’ll chat about in a mo.

 

Design

I want to touch briefly on the design, as this is a bit of a luxury iPhone users don’t really have each year, with pretty much the same design and camera bumps that just seem to get bigger and bigger.

So we have the Dynamic Island vs the Pixel’s Pinhole Camera, which is much less distracting than Apple’s approach, and also – I couldn’t see any reason why this Dynamic Island feature couldn’t be developed to look just as good, if not better on the Pixel. In fact, I’m sure someone out there has already designed an app that will do just that, knowing the Android community!

You do get a toggle switch on the side to Mute your phone, though on the Pixel I just set it up so that it goes into DND as soon as I place it face down on the desk – that’s been great when shooting YouTube videos and I can just pop it down and know that nothing’s going to interrupt me.

The always-on Display – I can leave it on all day without impacting the battery, and it’s dim enough whilst still displaying all of the information that I need, like the notifications.

Whereas with Apple, you get a more colourful, somewhat richer experience – but I do find that I keep thinking that the display has been left on because it’s still quite bright. It does eat into the battery considerably, so I usually just switch it off.

They’re not as rich as the Apple notifications, but still good enough, as long as you stay on top of them.

I find if you don’t deal with them, then you’ll just get a tonne of icons on the always-on screen and not really be able to tell what’s going on.

Another design feature that you don’t get on the Pixel is Magsafe – something I’ve grown to love about the iPhone. I have so many chargers around my house where I can just stick my phone to. One at my desk, one in the car, and my bedside table.

Pixel does have a charging stand, but Magsafe really is great. Thankfully, just before I decided that I would make this post, my favourite case of all time from MagBak, which I ordered a month or two ago, I think – got delivered!

This isn’t sponsored or anything; I just genuinely love these cases where they have built-in magnets, which means you can stick your phone to any metal surface.

 

Migrating

In terms of actually switching from the iPhone to the Pixel, there are a few ways you can switch.

Firstly in the box, you get this little dongle that allows you to plug your iPhone into your Pixel, and it will copy as much as you can from your iPhone to your Pixel.

The Transition Process

Making the switch from one smartphone to another can be a daunting task, but this individual found the process to be relatively painless.

But I’ve used an iPhone for so many years now, that I didn’t want to just copy everything from one place to the next; I wanted to start with a clean slate.

Navigating the Learning Curve

While there was a bit of a learning curve when it came to the new user interface, it wasn’t anything that this individual couldn’t handle. After a few days of use, they were able to easily navigate the Pixel 7 Pro.

 

So if you do want to transfer things, you can. But I used this as an opportunity to start from scratch without suddenly bloating my phone with a tone of photos and messages and apps that it thinks I needed.

Transferring Data and Contacts

Transferring data and contacts was also a breeze. Google makes it easy to transfer all of your information from one device to another, which saved a lot of time and hassle.

Now the one potential problem when moving from Apple is for those of you who use Keychain to store all of your passwords. So I would highly recommend before you switch to a Pixel that, you sign up for a proper Password Manager.

 

Because using a proper password manager for me, has meant that I can bring all of my usernames and passwords with me to any new device that I pick up.

I’ve used 1Password for years now, and they’ve become a long-term sponsor of my YouTube channel, so there’ll be a link below to get 25% off either a personal or family subscription.

Cameras

Next on the list of things that nobody can agree on is the Cameras on both of these phones.

Honestly – it’s 2022, and these phones are both excellent and widely regarded as the two best phones when it comes to cameras.

A few things I have noticed, though, when using the Pixel.

Firstly, in my experience, the Pixel seems to miss the edges when taking Portrait photos. So snap a photo, then zoom in and look around the edges; you’ll see that ears are often mistaken as part of the background, so the Pixel blurs them out. Vs the iPhone, which, isn’t always perfect but does seem to get it right more than the Pixel. I think when testing out various Android phones recently, the S22 Ultra and Samsung in general, seem to be the best here.

Camera Capabilities

One of the biggest selling points for the Pixel 7 Pro was its camera. With 50 megapixels and an f/1.9 aperture, the photos taken on this device are sharp, clear, and vivid. The Night Sight feature also allows for high-quality photos in low-light settings, which is a huge plus.

One thing that I definitely prefer with the Pixel over the iPhone, though is the lens setup. And specifically, Pixel’s 5x lens is far more practical than Apple combining 2 of their lenses to give us a 2x optical lens.

With the Pixel, you can get better photos from greater distances, particularly if you have kids and want to snap photos at their shows, or, honestly really anything where you’re not standing right next to it.

On the iPhone, Apple has combined the 1x and 3x lenses to give you this semi-fake 2x focal length. But I use the 5x on the Pixel all the time.

Checking off the other modes – Video and Cinematic Mode, it can be very, very blurry on the Pixel – that is better on iPhone, but I don’t often use Cinematic mode on either phone, to be honest.

I also found that video can be jittery on Pixel, especially when you zoom with stabilisation where it’s trying to lock on to the thing that it thinks you’re trying to film.

Low light, both are equally good.

Macro, too, is also good on both, but I prefer the image Pixel produces here.

You also have the flagship photo features on the Pixel, Magic Eraser, which lets you quickly erase other people or objects from your photos, which can be fun to play with, and Photo Unblur, which restores your blurry photos to a sharper image.

Day to day, I don’t honestly use these features a whole bunch. If I see I’ve taken a blurry photo, I’ll just try to take a better one. And actually, the one time I did use it, it didn’t work.

The magic eraser does work, but it depends on the type of photo you’re trying to erase things from. And if you zoom in close on the images, it’s sometimes pretty obvious that it’s had some objects removed.

Overall – Even though the Pixel does have some issues, I actually find myself wanting to share my Pixel photos more than I do the iPhone photos.

Though I know this will always come down to personal preference and so there is no right or wrong answer here.

Before I get on to the Watch experience, I want to touch on overall performance and pricing.

Performance (and Pricing)

For Performance, both of these phones are very fast. They keep up with each other when launching apps and with day-to-day usage. I haven’t experienced any slowdowns or glitches, or even bugs! Something I keep seeing seems to be affecting a lot of iPhone users online.

But honestly, I’ve not had any issues with either.

Yes, if you do some heavy lifting, the iPhone’s faster chip may be better for you. But personally, I don’t edit videos on my phone, I don’t edit photos, or really play that many games, and the Pixel manages to keep up with me just fine.

The Pixel also has the benefit here of being more competitively priced than the iPhone, particularly the Pro Max version of the iPhone 14 even though you get a similar-sized screen.

Battery Life

Battery life is always a concern for smartphone users, and the Pixel 7 Pro does not disappoint. With a 4,800mAh battery, this device can easily last all day without needing to be charged.

So I would say that for those worried about downgrading to a cheaper, slower phone – it’s really not an issue when it comes to the Pixel 7 Pro.

Watch

OK so for the Pixel and Android in general – it does open up more options to you in terms of which watch you wear.

More choices in different designs, to suit your preferences!

There’s the Galaxy Watch 5, TicWatch, Fossil, and of course, the Pixel Watch.

For me, these options still aren’t as good as the Apple Watch. It’s still got the best user interface, it’s smooth, the way it works is flawless, and particularly with the new Ultra that I’ve been wearing for a while now, its battery life, the screen, everything about it is just crazy good.

I did wear the Pixel Watch for the last couple of weeks – and it was just, OK.

A few specifics which really dulled my experience with the Pixel Watch Specifically.

Firstly, when you set your phone to DND, it doesn’t set your Watch to DND. A feature that I would have thought would be pretty obvious to have.

Secondly, the Watch’s Battery Life just isn’t great. Even with the always-on display switched off, I found myself getting to the end of the day with a dead watch.

Thirdly, with the Apple watch, you can use your phone to unlock the watch. So I put on my watch in the morning, and the first time I look at my phone, it unlocks the watch, so it knows I’m wearing it.

The Pixel watch doesn’t quite work like this. I put the watch on, and I assume that everything is fine. Until I realise that my watch hasn’t given me any notifications all morning, so I tap my watch, and it prompts me to swipe to unlock it. So I unlock it – and then it kind of, finishes booting up? I guess from where it was totally dead the night before.

So I’ve gone a few days where I haven’t remembered to put the watch on and unlock my watch at the same time – so then I miss out on notifications.

Fourthly – and this is a minor thing, but still hasn’t been updated. If you swim with a Pixel watch, all it can do is track the time you’ve been swimming. It doesn’t log heart rate, lengths, pace, or anything. Just the time.

So if you’re a keen swimmer, the Pixel watch isn’t for you.

This is the first generation of Pixel Watch, so they’ll, of course, be learning a lot from all of us who are feeding back our experiences. But for me, I’d probably go with a Galaxy Watch 5 Pro for being the closest to Apple Watch-like features. Maybe let me know in the comments below what you’re using or which watch you’d go for if you switched.

So that’s a not-so-good about the Pixel experience, but what IS good is the audio experience.

You do, of course, get the Pixel Buds, and the Buds Pro which I have, and both work great. But they don’t stay in my ears; I seem to have a shape of ear that just doesn’t keep in-ear headphones in place.

But, I do use my LG Tone free T90  Pro earbuds all the time, and I’m glad to report that they work just fine on Pixel phones. You can also use Airpods on the Pixels with some limited features, but for general day-to-day use and listening to music, they’ll work just fine.

Now I know that the whole iPhone vs Android discussion is hugely triggering for a lot of people, with most people saying the side they’ve chosen is the best. But this is exactly why I’ve been trying out a bunch of Android phones this year. And actually, after all of this testing and swapping back and forth, I am going to be switching to Android, but it’s not going to be a Pixel. Not just yet anyway…