Android to iOS - I think I want an iPhone - Pic warning

[Temetka]

First off let me start by saying this: I cannot believe that I would ever want an iPhone. For years I have had this mental image in my head of your typical iPhone toting hipster, their green eco cars, stupid craft beer, vinyl is better than digital (my view: analog is better, vinyl is not), man beards, flannel, etc. They make my blood boil.

<ogre>
Hipsters!
</ogre>

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-YjUE ... sters.jpeg

Now then....

I have a Galaxy Note 4. I have been using Samsung phones since the days of the BlackJack II, then S1, S3, etc. It's a great phone.

And it's [censored] me off for the last time. Or T-Mobile. But either way.

My data connection drops 4-5 times a day requiring a reboot to get LTE back. I recently got my wife an iPhone 5c. It's been a rock. Stable as heck. A good friend of mine has an iPhone 6+ and so do others I have known. I also own an iPad 3 which I love very much and am getting an iPad Mini 2 w/LTE shortly (work issued, owned by me because well, that's how I roll).

As I put more and more though into it, I have to ask myself: Self, what is it about Android that you like? The answer is widgets. Specifically Zooper Widget Pro. I can create my own widgets on the fly. For someone who loves to make custom conky's in linux and is now dabbling in RainMeter for Windows, writing my own widget is passionate hobby for me. It's so much fun. I don't thank I can do that in iOS for free. (Full disclosure: I pad a few buck for the pro version of Zooper, but the other version is free).

I also like that I can place widgets on the homescreen and you can't do this in iOS unless you jailbreak the device.

Still though. My iPad is far easier to use than my Note 10.1, which I gave to my 10 year old daughter. My wifes iPhone is very easy to use. It just works. My S3 was a rock. My Note 4 is stupid fast. But the data connection is unreliable. This I blame on T-Mobile and not on Samsung. Samsung build a terrific phone with a great camera (as far as phones go), the speed is great, I love S-Note and so on. But when I look at iOS and I really, really compare the 2 platforms, what do I lose and what do I gain?

I have purchased apps in both platforms. I am not tied into either one too deeply that switching would hurt financially.

Gain: Excellent curated app store. Stability. I love the swipe up and double tap the home button for app switching and quick ariplane control, brightness, volume, etc.

Lose: Can't use phone as flash drive. No on-screen widgets w/out jailbreak.

Maybe it's the RDF. Maybe it's the Kool-Aid. But something about the platform draws me to it. Im a Linux user, a programmer, a sysadmin, and yet, you'd think I'd want an Android. For years, I thought so. I laughed in derision at the thought of owning one. I mocked iOS users. And now, now I just don't know.

I'm leaning towards switching platforms. I *never* switch platforms. Planets have to align, virgin sacrifices must be made, oaths and deals with pagan Gods must be struck before I switch platforms.

And yet, I think I am going to get an iPhone 6+.

Thoughts?

MOD edit: come on Mike, you've been on this forum long enough, to know that pictures are limited to 50KB!
Please read the Forum Rules, especially Section 5!

[precip9]

I have a Note 4/LTE with Tmobile. In NY-NJ-PA, the data is solid. I've never had to reboot the phone. I wonder what properties of your local Tmobile network provoke the problem.

What I like about the Tmobile/Note4 combo, ***where I live*** is 25mb/s tethered, while moving, on NE Corridor trains. Where I am, Tmobile LTE is LTE Advanced, with wide, bonded channels.

With an unbranded Xperia ZL/LTE, I did have something analogous to your problem. But instead having to reboot the phone, the phone rebooted with every switch to a different cell.

As far as the interface, it's secondary. With Samsung batteries ~18 bucks, I will never again buy a phone with a nonreplaceable battery. Your joy will last only until the battery degrades from thermal effects.

With a phone that has an aluminum body, the SAR (radiation exposure) must be pretty high, because the internal patch antennas cannot be positioned to radiate out the back of the case. Ergo, right into your skull.

[RMSMajestic]

Just saying, iOS is good, Android is okay if you don't install dodgy things, just avoid windows phones. They have all the disadvantages but no advantage of windows.

I have a NOKIA Lumia 1020, a phone camera (I call it a phone camera cos it barely works as a phone). :/

[RealBlackStuff]

Why not try Sprint first (for 1/2 the price) before investing an unsum in an iPhone?
https://www.sprint.com/#!/

[ajkula66]

Why not try Sprint first (for 1/2 the price)

Key work here is "try"...out of all the "major" carriers in the U.S. Sprint's coverage is by far the spottiest one.

If it works well where OP is, then yes, by all means...

[pianowizard]

I have a Galaxy Note 4. I have been using Samsung phones since the days of the BlackJack II, then S1, S3, etc. It's a great phone. And it's *****Expletives removed by Moderator***** me off for the last time.

I remember that you got your Note 4 just a little after I got my 1st-gen Note. Though the Note was already a 3-year-old model, I bought mine from someone who had almost never used it, so it was practically new. But within a month, the microUSB port became loose and stopped charging the battery. I fixed it myself using a very cheap 3rd-party replacement board, but both voice and data reception got worse. After living with that for half a year, I decided it's time to get a new phone.

Unfortunately, there were very few phones to choose from because anything smaller than 6.0-inch is too small for me. In terms of form factor, the Huawei MediaPad X2 (AKA Honor X2) with 7.0" 1920x1200 would be perfect, but in the U.S., this made-for-China phone supports 3G at most. After doing some research, I concluded that only one 7.0" phone is guaranteed to give me 4G, which happens to be the el cheapo BLU Studio 7.0. The resolution is really low, 1024x600, and the screen uses a TN panel with narrow viewing angles -- I suspect this panel was originally designed for netbooks -- but I do enjoy the screen size.

Or T-Mobile. But either way. My data connection drops 4-5 times a day requiring a reboot to get LTE back. I recently got my wife an iPhone 5c. It's been a rock. Stable as heck.

Is your wife's iPhone 5c also on T-Mobile? If it is, then the only variable is the phone model, suggesting this iPhone is indeed more reliable than your Note 4.

I wish I could use the iPhone 6+ but it's simply too small.

Why not try Sprint first (for 1/2 the price) before investing an unsum in an iPhone?

Does Sprint allow tethering? T-Mobile does. Another advantage that T-Mobile has is that it gives unlimited data access in over 120 countries. Sprint recently started to do the same but only in a dozen or so countries.

[Temetka]

Yes, my wifes iPhone is also on T-Mobile.

I am beginning to suspect the data issue is with Lollipop. When I was running KitKat, I never had this problem. I might downgrade to 4.4.4 again and live with it. The only speed differences I have noticed in 5.0 are that it boots really, really quick.

RE: Replaceable batteries. I know I can swap batteries in my Note 4. However for as long as I have been using cell phones, I have never once had to purchase a 2nd battery. Honestly the only portable device of phone size that had it's battery degrade on me was the 1st gen 8GB iPod Touch that I own. It lasts about 2 hours now. I don't really care as I haven't used it in over 2 years.

Like I said in the op: I am still debating on switching to iOS. I'll try downgrading to 4.4.4 and see if that solves my data issue. But I still really like the iPhone 6+. Also, and this is purely my opinion, I think it takes better photos than my Note 4. That being said I am very, very happy with the pictures my Note 4 takes.

Overall I really enjoy the phone. It's got a great screen, is fast, and it's 32GB of storage is more than I need. I've moved all my important stuff to the cloud and/or my 5TB NAS. The only thing I keep on the phone is some ringtones, wallpapers, S-Note files, and my Zooper Widget templates. I don't have any music or videos stored on it. For music I either use Milk Music (which I really like), or YouTube, or Pandora. I've got custom playlists on YouTube and custom channels setup on Milk and Pandora. I do prefer Milk though. It has a better UI and less ads.