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I switched to Android last year, from being a long time iPhone user, just for the fold. I got the google pixel fold 9 pro. I also got lucky as it's right when a

by baby 1y ago

I switched to Android last year, from being a long time iPhone user, just for the fold. I got the google pixel fold 9 pro. I also got lucky as it's right when all the cool AI integration started (and it sounds like it doesn't really work on Apple). My first hand experience is that I will probably never be able to go back to a non-folding phone. The ability to get a small tablet on demand anywhere (subway, train, bed, couch, etc.) is really the next technological breakthrough we were waiting for. I think the pricing and the battery kinda suck, android also doesn't have the same polish as iOS, but most of the criticism that I've read is not really relevant (for example, I can't see the crease at all if I look at my phone) I use it a lot to read PDFs and watch videos, or when U want to multi task with two apps open at the same time (e.g. filling forms with a pic of my passport on the other screen). I also read mangas from it. Oh and the ability to use the back camera for selfies while being able to see myself is so great I use that all the time.

wffurr 1y ago
>> android also doesn't have the same polish as iOS As someone who switched from using Android for many years to iOS for the iPhone Mini, this seems to be all about what you're used to. The lack of polish on iOS for many features, notifications and quick settings first among them, makes me crazy but not enough to deal with a huge phone. Android's had the notification shade with integrated settings since just about day one and it's a killer feature.
- lapetitejort 1y ago
  Riffing on a comment I saw on one of LinusTechTip's "Switch to Android/Apple" videos: phone users misinterpret familiarity with intuitiveness and polish. Android is "intuitive" to me because I've been using it more than a decade. It's "polished" because I'm blind to the rough edges.
  - abandonliberty 1y ago
    I was really surprised when I first got an iPhone. After all the hype about it being so intuitive and polished, it was just different. Some things better, some things worse. But Apple devices take a bit longer to go obsolete, and seem just a tiny bit less invasive as they don't rely on an advertising model for revenue.
    - dotancohen 1y ago
      For the few months that I had to use an iPhone in addition to my regular Android phone, I also tried to convince myself that some things were better and some things were worse. But the iOS keyboard was completely unusable for me as a power user, and it cannot be replaced. I was missing so many features of Gboard. I absolutely could not consider an iPhone or any other replacement phone for that matter, if it does not support Gboard.
      - sanswork 1y ago
        You can install gboard on iPhones, I've been using it for several years on one.
        jahnu 1y ago
        Interesting that it hasn’t been updated in three years.
        sanswork 1y ago
        It's pretty terrible but it's still the best of what I've tried. Given the progress in LLMs the autocomplete/autocorrect choices and word suggestions are laughably bad. Swype and the MS one though still managed to be worse
        whycome 1y ago
        It's crippled though. You can't do something simple like have the comma on main view.
        sanswork 1y ago
        Is that an iPhone restriction or is that Google not maintaining a product?
        whycome 1y ago
  - V__ 1y ago
    I would agree with you before Apple switched everything to gestures. Any time I now have to help a family member out on an iPhone I get extremely frustrated. Does the interface want me to swipe, long press or do something else? There are no real hints. Extremely irritating.
    - ThrowawayR2 1y ago
      I miss the three physical navigation buttons that phones used to have. Yes, they took up a bit of space but they were also unambiguous about what their navigational function was.
      - greesil 1y ago
        I know in Android you can switch back to three button navigation if you want.
    - lan321 1y ago
      I despise my work iPhone for the gestures and the screen lock canceling a call if it's not picked up yet, but turning the screen off if the call has been answered. Nothing more annoying than pinging someone by mistake and then calling each other with perfect timing so you both get the message that the other party is already in a call a couple of times.
- cosmic_cheese 1y ago
  Also just how important certain features are to you personally. For me notifications are generally more annoying than they are useful, and this doesn’t change under Android. In fact the emphasis that Android puts on them in the shade really sucks for me because it’d much rather have the quick settings pane fully visible than room for a couple more notifications — having to swipe again to see all the toggles is super annoying. So for me, the split shade that iOS does where swiping down on the top right edge of the screen shows only your quick toggles is preferable. Some people basically live in their notifications, though. I’ve never been able to understand it, but they do, and so the Android way works better for them. I think there are also less subjective aspects though, like the choice of animation curves through much of Android feels “wrong” somehow and different from almost everything else else out there, including Windows, Linux desktops, etc.
  - rickdeckard 1y ago
    > So for me, the split shade that iOS does where swiping down on the top right edge of the screen shows only your quick toggles is preferable. Just FYI, on Samsung Android Devices this is implemented as you describe. Useless info: I think the feature was first implemented on Android 3 (Honeycomb) but then abandoned again on Android 4 (ICS)
    - cosmic_cheese 1y ago
      One UI borrows a number of things from iOS so I’m not surprised. It really should be an option in base AOSP (and thus most Android installs) though.
  - kevin_thibedeau 1y ago
    Just block all your apps from generating notifications. Long press the ones that show up in the pane and turn them off permanently. Eventually you will have them all eliminated.
- unsignedint 1y ago
  “Polish” is subjective. If what a platform provides aligns with your needs, it feels polished. If it doesn’t, that same “polish” can actually work against you. In other words, polish depends on how much you agree with the platform’s way of doing things. iOS (and Apple overall) tends to be more opinionated. It says, “Do things our way and you’ll have a smooth experience.” Android, by contrast, has historically been more of a flexible “toolkit.” That gave you room to shape the platform to your liking, though it often meant less guidance and structure. In recent years, Android has shifted toward more out-of-the-box convenience, closing some of that gap. But ultimately, it comes down to what you value: iOS offers a cohesive, guided experience, while Android gives you more leeway to adapt things if you don’t agree with the defaults. Neither approach is inherently better—it’s about what fits you.
- ACow_Adonis 1y ago
  As someone who has an android personal phone and an iPhone for work for several years, I literally do not know what the hell people mean by "polish", beyond just the informal emotional utterance that can be translated back to "what I'm used to". Half of the stuff in the iPhone is equally arbitrary and mindboggling as the android.
  - ryandrake 1y ago
    I think a lot of it is just tribal mysticism. One gets used to their preferred devices, and then they mentally imbue them with positive qualities, conjured out of their own imagination/biases. There was an article[1] a while back where the author was complaining that Android apps feel "inert and rigid," and lack "comfort, fun, and panache." Like, really? How is anyone expected to compare one app's "panache" with another one's? You're just used to one ecosystem's apps, and other people are used to another ecosystem's apps. 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34611552 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34611552
    - woah 1y ago
      I looked at that link and the quote was: "But for the most part, it seems like third-party Android apps don’t even try to achieve the look-and-feel comfort, fun, and panache of iOS apps." (referring to Android Mastodon clients vs iOS Mastodon clients) Is nobody allowed to make any subjective judgement about apps?
- whycome 1y ago
  Why are notifications on iOS such a nightmare? It’s impossible to properly read just a selection or to quickly dismiss many at once.
  - FirmwareBurner 1y ago
    Because neither the shareholders or the userbase cares about this. Apple has a captive market who accepted this limitation for over 10 years and thee won't switch to Android because of that issue. Entification will only continue from here on both parties since they've achieved duopoly status, so as a customer you can only pick the lesser of two evils.
- ewoodrich 1y ago
  I've been using an iPhone I got from a carrier deal for the last year after using Android phones since the T-Mobile G1, and the notification shade drives me insane on iOS. Notifications in general are so much more annoying to deal with on iOS vs Android. For the love of god please just let me clear all notifications! Also, how Apple seems to deliberately avoid including a shortcut to the full settings anywhere in the control center or the shade. It honestly feels like one of those stubborn Apple things where at one point they decided Android including a settings shortcut (gear icon on the shade) was somehow an admission that its quick actions were poorly designed and iOS is above that.
  - kayodelycaon 1y ago
    I think these features are or can be implemented. But they are definitely not obvious. And it’s possible they weren’t there when you first used an iPhone. To clear all, swipe down on the top left to show Notification Center. You should see an X button right of the words “Notification Center”. If you want to launch an app from control center, open control center (swipe down from the battery icon), press and hold on a clear area until you’re able to edit it. Add a control. Scroll down until you see the Shortcuts controls and pick Open App, then pick Settings.
    - ewoodrich 1y ago
      1. That only clears notifications not considered “recent”. Any notifications above that cutoff have to be cleared manually (and sometimes there can be a lot). 2. This is actually helpful thanks, don’t think of using a shortcut and making one myself!
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- jajko 1y ago
  My wife is a doctor but exact opposite of power user for phones and technology overall. She switched from android to iphone 13 mini when it came out, I recommended it to her and thought Apple is ideal platform for her. Bough her ipods pro too, chargers and so on. The only, literally only thing she liked was the seamless integration of airpods with phone, hated literally everything else about the hardware and mainly iOS/software. Too dumbed down for her, some trivial things she does often are simply not possible on iOS and that's it, no way on earth to change that without voiding warranty, if at all. So now she bought Samsung S24 and couldn't be happier. The switch made airpods pro basically useless or more like supremely annoying to use (there's an anti-competitive case or two against Apple in this, degradation is very obvious and on purpose), so she gave them away and happy with whatever plugs she picked up from ocean of available and good enough hardware for her use. My boss is same story - bought into Apple ecosystem with some older pro max variant maybe 5-6 years ago, then of course airpods and watches followed. The very definition of power user. Switching now back to android (pixel 10 pro), hates the products at this point. These are people who don't care about price much but want best usability and convenience for them. From opposite side of spectrum of users. Me, I never had A device and probably never will, but I respect them for success and innovation they bring to the whole industry. Good competition literally helps everybody in long run.
  - idiotsecant 1y ago
    It's wild how HN will consistently vote down comments that don't have good experiences with apple products, even well thought out ones like this. At the time of this comment you're pretty heavily voted as a negative comment.
    - jajko 1y ago
      Its fine I don't care, I prefer speaking whats on my mind (or experience of others around me) rather than chasing meaningless points by saying likeable stuff. Its not even my first account here.
  - thewebguyd 1y ago
    I've long said that if Apple didn't have their ecosystem lock-in, they wouldn't be able to compete on a level playing field. I like a lot of Apple's hardware, and as of now I'm still "all in" on their ecosystems. I have the phone, watch, AirPods, iPad, macbook both for work and personal use, even an Apple TV box. I can't stand iOS, but the only reason its "better" for me is just because I take advantage of all the other Apple devices and proprietary protocols + I prefer Apple Music over Spotify. If third parties were allowed to also use AirDrop, shareplay/airplay, clipboard sharing, etc. then I'd dump my iPhone in a heartbeat. But, I love my apple silicon macs too much to get rid of those, and KDE connect isn't great on it, so I'm effectively "stuck"
nomel 1y ago
How has the reliability been? Here's part of the list of warnings I saw when I setup a Samsung Fold for someone else: > Don't press the screen or under display camera with a sharp object such as a pen or fingernail. Doing so can result in scratches, dents, or damage to the screen. > This phone isn't dust-proof. Exposure to small particles such as sand may cause damage. I live close to the beach, so very often have a bit of sand in my pocket. Seems like these phones wouldn't last a weekend.
- claytongulick 1y ago
  I actually went back to the s25 from the fold because of this. When you get sand in the hinges, it's pretty annoying and difficult to clean out. I was always nervous about taking my phone out on the beach. That's tough living in Florida, the whole state is basically a giant sand bar. I also actually didn't like the fold part. Most of what I do on a phone is read Kindle or browse the web. For Kindle, the phone was uncomfortable to hold with one hand for long periods to read. Web browsing was worse than a normal phone because many common sites like weather.com have responsive design that get very confused and unusable with that "in-between" size. The display on the outside of the phone that you can use while it's closed was so tiny and narrow it was unusable as well. The whole thing was heavy and clunky feeling. (This was the most recent galaxy fold, the pixel one may be better) I was pretty happy to go back to a normal form factor.
  - danielbln 1y ago
    The new Pixel 10 fold has a sealed hinge, and is water proof.
toasted-subs 1y ago
I dont mind iphones but with how they lock down their devices and do things like prevent you from removing keyword suggestions so when your keyboard starts harassing you, you are out of luck.and the edges are so sharp and uncomfortable to hold. Its like wearing a thong or being locked in chastity.As a male I dont understand why people people wear those things.
neya 1y ago
I discovered something insideous after being in the iOS ecosystem. Apple still slows down iPhones, but not in the way you think - every year around their iPhone launch schedule, like clockwork, my iPhone 14 Pro Max slowed down just enough to make me think it was ageing, but not enough to suspect - after a lot of tests, it turns out, the reponsitivity of the touch was being reduced in software. So, the "smooth" iOS polished animations feel a bit laggy, but not enough to raise eyebrows. But, this is not even the worst part. I casually - out of pure coincidence discovered that Apple actually reduces the camera's clarity around their new iPhone launches. Particularly low-light performance. I thought I was being paranoid, but I'm a photographer and the hotel I walked across everyday in the evening had these beautiful hanging creepers which combined with golden lighting, always provided a pleasant sight. So, I loved taking pictures of it randomly until one day I noticed that regardless of the camera mode, the noise was insanely high and the pictures suddenly looked like they were taken from an old Android phone from 2015. I cleaned the lenses, had no cover, etc. I copied the images to my computer and the difference was clearly visible. After a little bit digging, it turns out, I wasn't the only one. A lot of people had complained about the lagginess around iPhone launch dates. This is an old graph from Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Ff0ttigcjyra21.png%3Fwidth%3D1080%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D0b1e903bc27710fc78748c8854646abd014785dc https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.... This is actual data from Google trends: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=iphone%20slow&hl=en https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=iphone%2... You can clearly see a spike in as recent as September 2025. But, the camera data was the last straw for me. As a photographer who paid $1000+ for the iPhone Pro Max - supposedly their latest and greatest phone of the time, only to get screwed over by greed 2 years later, I had enough. I sold the iPhone at a loss, got myself a Samsung Note and I actually took pictures of the same hotel again and the difference was stark. That really told me everything I needed to know about Apple's ethics. In contrast, I also have a Samsung S10+ from ages ago and it still functions flawlessly. The trade off clearly is privacy with the Android eco-system, but until we have a decent Apple alternative that's also privacy focused, I'm forced to accept this trade off. Funnily enough, my iPad and Macbooks never get slowed down, even if it's 5+ years. It's only for the iPhones. I guess they view the iPhone as fast fashion or something, but the ethical component is not acceptable to me.
- 1y ago
LorenDB 1y ago
I just switched from a Motorola Razr+ to a OnePlus 13 because the Razr's internal display cable apparently started flaking out, probably because I dropped it on the hinge on concrete a while back. I almost got another Razr, but even though I got a "normal" phone this time around, I'm tentatively planning to move back to a foldable once my OnePlus is old and gray. Foldables are just so nice; the flip style for me is especially convenient since it is more compact in a pocket. I also feel like we're almost to the tipping point where we can consider folding displays solved to the point that new generations start having marginal iterations (as opposed to "wow, the crease is so much smaller!" and "Oh look, they finally got foldables IP68 rated!").
zhyder 1y ago
I've thought larger bi-folds have an odd aspect ratio for anything but two-app multi-tasking. E.g. there's ~ no benefit for videos compared to non-foldables with half the screen area. Is aspect ratio not an issue in practice somehow?
- JoshTriplett 1y ago
  It's a great aspect ratio for reading or writing. And it does increase the size of videos somewhat, compared to using the outer screen in landscape orientation.
- baby 1y ago
  Yeah videos aren't as big as they could be due to the aspect ratio, they still look bigger though and its enough of a life improvement that I always flip mine open when I want to watch a video!
deleted 1y ago
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fennecbutt 1y ago
Doesn't have the same polish? Are you kidding me. How do you go back on iOS? Oh yeah it depends on which app and sometimes even where you are within one app. On android? Use the navigation bar or the same back gesture, every time all the time.
- yreg 1y ago
  I never ever had a problem of not being sure how to go back in an iOS app, so I don't see why a dedicated button is such a missing feature. Polish is also about visual consistency and Android is behind on that front.
  - skylurk 1y ago
    I switched to an iPhone five years ago and still miss the consistency of the Android back button. If a webpage embeds a full-width map, for example, the Safari back swipe is blocked by a pan action, and you need to jiggle the page's scroll to get the back button to show up at the bottom.
  - phatfish 1y ago
    iOS is filled with UI junk at this point. Not having a consistent way to go back is the least of my problems when attempting to use my wife's iPhone. It is the most obvious though, having to tap right at the top left (usually) of the screen for the most frequently used action is incomprehensible.
    - fortyseven 1y ago
      I dabbled a bit with iOS. I'm a long time Android fan, and I was curious, so I gave it a shot. And you're absolutely right. Even if you've come to expect backwards navigation to be in the top left, how the hell is that convenient? Assuming a right-handed individual, that means you have to stretch all the way up there or bring your left hand into play. And if you're left-handed, you still need to reach all the way up at the top of the screen. It's baffling. But we'll have people here defending it, for some unknown reason. Probably because they're used to it. Just like I'm not used to it as an Android guy so I find it repulsive. But I can also back it up with just the constraints of the human hand. For what it's worth, I don't have the navigation bar at the bottom. I just use gestures, so anywhere I swipe off screen to on screen, it's considered a back gesture. Which, once you get used to it, you cannot go back. Well, you can. By swiping. ;}
vidarh 1y ago
Same. I haven't used my tablet since I got mine.
janpmz 1y ago
What are you doing on the large screen?
deleted 1y ago
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epolanski 1y ago
> is really the next technological breakthrough we were waiting for I'm 99% convinced that the iPhone Air is the crippled child of Apple's intention to make a foldable. They couldn't nail the foldable part (for the time being at least) so they just launched the Air with the things they nailed about the design. > android also doesn't have the same polish as iOS Could you provide examples here? Don't get if this is a "feels" thing. The things that imho iOS really nails better are: - integration with devices (in the same Apple ecosystem) - battery life when browsing What else?
skeezyboy 1y ago
? I use it a lot to read PDFs and watch videos... only if I cannot reasonably access a computer will i use a thumb-typing touchscreen device to do serious work. as computing devices, they are sub-par when compared to desktops. as telephones, they are subpar compared to dumbphones
kevin_thibedeau 1y ago
> the battery kinda suck Probably because of all the AI integration stuff. You don't get something for nothing. Turn on battery saver, data saver, and decrease brightness (and refresh rate if possible). Still, You have three screens worth of volume taking away space for a larger battery. That's the deal with folders.

by baby 1y ago

wffurr 1y ago

>> android also doesn't have the same polish as iOS As someone who switched from using Android for many years to iOS for the iPhone Mini, this seems to be all about what you're used to. The lack of polish on iOS for many features, notifications and quick settings first among them, makes me crazy but not enough to deal with a huge phone. Android's had the notification shade with integrated settings since just about day one and it's a killer feature.

lapetitejort 1y ago
Riffing on a comment I saw on one of LinusTechTip's "Switch to Android/Apple" videos: phone users misinterpret familiarity with intuitiveness and polish. Android is "intuitive" to me because I've been using it more than a decade. It's "polished" because I'm blind to the rough edges.
- abandonliberty 1y ago
  I was really surprised when I first got an iPhone. After all the hype about it being so intuitive and polished, it was just different. Some things better, some things worse. But Apple devices take a bit longer to go obsolete, and seem just a tiny bit less invasive as they don't rely on an advertising model for revenue.
  - dotancohen 1y ago
    For the few months that I had to use an iPhone in addition to my regular Android phone, I also tried to convince myself that some things were better and some things were worse. But the iOS keyboard was completely unusable for me as a power user, and it cannot be replaced. I was missing so many features of Gboard. I absolutely could not consider an iPhone or any other replacement phone for that matter, if it does not support Gboard.
    - sanswork 1y ago
      You can install gboard on iPhones, I've been using it for several years on one.
      - jahnu 1y ago
        Interesting that it hasn’t been updated in three years.
        sanswork 1y ago
        It's pretty terrible but it's still the best of what I've tried. Given the progress in LLMs the autocomplete/autocorrect choices and word suggestions are laughably bad. Swype and the MS one though still managed to be worse
      - whycome 1y ago
        It's crippled though. You can't do something simple like have the comma on main view.
        sanswork 1y ago
        Is that an iPhone restriction or is that Google not maintaining a product?
        whycome 1y ago
- V__ 1y ago
  I would agree with you before Apple switched everything to gestures. Any time I now have to help a family member out on an iPhone I get extremely frustrated. Does the interface want me to swipe, long press or do something else? There are no real hints. Extremely irritating.
  - ThrowawayR2 1y ago
    I miss the three physical navigation buttons that phones used to have. Yes, they took up a bit of space but they were also unambiguous about what their navigational function was.
    - greesil 1y ago
      I know in Android you can switch back to three button navigation if you want.
  - lan321 1y ago
    I despise my work iPhone for the gestures and the screen lock canceling a call if it's not picked up yet, but turning the screen off if the call has been answered. Nothing more annoying than pinging someone by mistake and then calling each other with perfect timing so you both get the message that the other party is already in a call a couple of times.
cosmic_cheese 1y ago
Also just how important certain features are to you personally. For me notifications are generally more annoying than they are useful, and this doesn’t change under Android. In fact the emphasis that Android puts on them in the shade really sucks for me because it’d much rather have the quick settings pane fully visible than room for a couple more notifications — having to swipe again to see all the toggles is super annoying. So for me, the split shade that iOS does where swiping down on the top right edge of the screen shows only your quick toggles is preferable. Some people basically live in their notifications, though. I’ve never been able to understand it, but they do, and so the Android way works better for them. I think there are also less subjective aspects though, like the choice of animation curves through much of Android feels “wrong” somehow and different from almost everything else else out there, including Windows, Linux desktops, etc.
- rickdeckard 1y ago
  > So for me, the split shade that iOS does where swiping down on the top right edge of the screen shows only your quick toggles is preferable. Just FYI, on Samsung Android Devices this is implemented as you describe. Useless info: I think the feature was first implemented on Android 3 (Honeycomb) but then abandoned again on Android 4 (ICS)
  - cosmic_cheese 1y ago
    One UI borrows a number of things from iOS so I’m not surprised. It really should be an option in base AOSP (and thus most Android installs) though.
- kevin_thibedeau 1y ago
  Just block all your apps from generating notifications. Long press the ones that show up in the pane and turn them off permanently. Eventually you will have them all eliminated.
unsignedint 1y ago
“Polish” is subjective. If what a platform provides aligns with your needs, it feels polished. If it doesn’t, that same “polish” can actually work against you. In other words, polish depends on how much you agree with the platform’s way of doing things. iOS (and Apple overall) tends to be more opinionated. It says, “Do things our way and you’ll have a smooth experience.” Android, by contrast, has historically been more of a flexible “toolkit.” That gave you room to shape the platform to your liking, though it often meant less guidance and structure. In recent years, Android has shifted toward more out-of-the-box convenience, closing some of that gap. But ultimately, it comes down to what you value: iOS offers a cohesive, guided experience, while Android gives you more leeway to adapt things if you don’t agree with the defaults. Neither approach is inherently better—it’s about what fits you.
ACow_Adonis 1y ago
As someone who has an android personal phone and an iPhone for work for several years, I literally do not know what the hell people mean by "polish", beyond just the informal emotional utterance that can be translated back to "what I'm used to". Half of the stuff in the iPhone is equally arbitrary and mindboggling as the android.
- ryandrake 1y ago
  I think a lot of it is just tribal mysticism. One gets used to their preferred devices, and then they mentally imbue them with positive qualities, conjured out of their own imagination/biases. There was an article[1] a while back where the author was complaining that Android apps feel "inert and rigid," and lack "comfort, fun, and panache." Like, really? How is anyone expected to compare one app's "panache" with another one's? You're just used to one ecosystem's apps, and other people are used to another ecosystem's apps. 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34611552 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34611552
  - woah 1y ago
    I looked at that link and the quote was: "But for the most part, it seems like third-party Android apps don’t even try to achieve the look-and-feel comfort, fun, and panache of iOS apps." (referring to Android Mastodon clients vs iOS Mastodon clients) Is nobody allowed to make any subjective judgement about apps?
whycome 1y ago
Why are notifications on iOS such a nightmare? It’s impossible to properly read just a selection or to quickly dismiss many at once.
- FirmwareBurner 1y ago
  Because neither the shareholders or the userbase cares about this. Apple has a captive market who accepted this limitation for over 10 years and thee won't switch to Android because of that issue. Entification will only continue from here on both parties since they've achieved duopoly status, so as a customer you can only pick the lesser of two evils.
ewoodrich 1y ago
I've been using an iPhone I got from a carrier deal for the last year after using Android phones since the T-Mobile G1, and the notification shade drives me insane on iOS. Notifications in general are so much more annoying to deal with on iOS vs Android. For the love of god please just let me clear all notifications! Also, how Apple seems to deliberately avoid including a shortcut to the full settings anywhere in the control center or the shade. It honestly feels like one of those stubborn Apple things where at one point they decided Android including a settings shortcut (gear icon on the shade) was somehow an admission that its quick actions were poorly designed and iOS is above that.
- kayodelycaon 1y ago
  I think these features are or can be implemented. But they are definitely not obvious. And it’s possible they weren’t there when you first used an iPhone. To clear all, swipe down on the top left to show Notification Center. You should see an X button right of the words “Notification Center”. If you want to launch an app from control center, open control center (swipe down from the battery icon), press and hold on a clear area until you’re able to edit it. Add a control. Scroll down until you see the Shortcuts controls and pick Open App, then pick Settings.
  - ewoodrich 1y ago
    1. That only clears notifications not considered “recent”. Any notifications above that cutoff have to be cleared manually (and sometimes there can be a lot). 2. This is actually helpful thanks, don’t think of using a shortcut and making one myself!
- deleted 1y ago
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jajko 1y ago
My wife is a doctor but exact opposite of power user for phones and technology overall. She switched from android to iphone 13 mini when it came out, I recommended it to her and thought Apple is ideal platform for her. Bough her ipods pro too, chargers and so on. The only, literally only thing she liked was the seamless integration of airpods with phone, hated literally everything else about the hardware and mainly iOS/software. Too dumbed down for her, some trivial things she does often are simply not possible on iOS and that's it, no way on earth to change that without voiding warranty, if at all. So now she bought Samsung S24 and couldn't be happier. The switch made airpods pro basically useless or more like supremely annoying to use (there's an anti-competitive case or two against Apple in this, degradation is very obvious and on purpose), so she gave them away and happy with whatever plugs she picked up from ocean of available and good enough hardware for her use. My boss is same story - bought into Apple ecosystem with some older pro max variant maybe 5-6 years ago, then of course airpods and watches followed. The very definition of power user. Switching now back to android (pixel 10 pro), hates the products at this point. These are people who don't care about price much but want best usability and convenience for them. From opposite side of spectrum of users. Me, I never had A device and probably never will, but I respect them for success and innovation they bring to the whole industry. Good competition literally helps everybody in long run.
- idiotsecant 1y ago
  It's wild how HN will consistently vote down comments that don't have good experiences with apple products, even well thought out ones like this. At the time of this comment you're pretty heavily voted as a negative comment.
  - jajko 1y ago
    Its fine I don't care, I prefer speaking whats on my mind (or experience of others around me) rather than chasing meaningless points by saying likeable stuff. Its not even my first account here.
- thewebguyd 1y ago
  I've long said that if Apple didn't have their ecosystem lock-in, they wouldn't be able to compete on a level playing field. I like a lot of Apple's hardware, and as of now I'm still "all in" on their ecosystems. I have the phone, watch, AirPods, iPad, macbook both for work and personal use, even an Apple TV box. I can't stand iOS, but the only reason its "better" for me is just because I take advantage of all the other Apple devices and proprietary protocols + I prefer Apple Music over Spotify. If third parties were allowed to also use AirDrop, shareplay/airplay, clipboard sharing, etc. then I'd dump my iPhone in a heartbeat. But, I love my apple silicon macs too much to get rid of those, and KDE connect isn't great on it, so I'm effectively "stuck"

nomel 1y ago

How has the reliability been? Here's part of the list of warnings I saw when I setup a Samsung Fold for someone else: > Don't press the screen or under display camera with a sharp object such as a pen or fingernail. Doing so can result in scratches, dents, or damage to the screen. > This phone isn't dust-proof. Exposure to small particles such as sand may cause damage. I live close to the beach, so very often have a bit of sand in my pocket. Seems like these phones wouldn't last a weekend.

claytongulick 1y ago
I actually went back to the s25 from the fold because of this. When you get sand in the hinges, it's pretty annoying and difficult to clean out. I was always nervous about taking my phone out on the beach. That's tough living in Florida, the whole state is basically a giant sand bar. I also actually didn't like the fold part. Most of what I do on a phone is read Kindle or browse the web. For Kindle, the phone was uncomfortable to hold with one hand for long periods to read. Web browsing was worse than a normal phone because many common sites like weather.com have responsive design that get very confused and unusable with that "in-between" size. The display on the outside of the phone that you can use while it's closed was so tiny and narrow it was unusable as well. The whole thing was heavy and clunky feeling. (This was the most recent galaxy fold, the pixel one may be better) I was pretty happy to go back to a normal form factor.
- danielbln 1y ago
  The new Pixel 10 fold has a sealed hinge, and is water proof.

toasted-subs 1y ago

I dont mind iphones but with how they lock down their devices and do things like prevent you from removing keyword suggestions so when your keyboard starts harassing you, you are out of luck.and the edges are so sharp and uncomfortable to hold. Its like wearing a thong or being locked in chastity.As a male I dont understand why people people wear those things.

neya 1y ago

I discovered something insideous after being in the iOS ecosystem. Apple still slows down iPhones, but not in the way you think - every year around their iPhone launch schedule, like clockwork, my iPhone 14 Pro Max slowed down just enough to make me think it was ageing, but not enough to suspect - after a lot of tests, it turns out, the reponsitivity of the touch was being reduced in software. So, the "smooth" iOS polished animations feel a bit laggy, but not enough to raise eyebrows. But, this is not even the worst part. I casually - out of pure coincidence discovered that Apple actually reduces the camera's clarity around their new iPhone launches. Particularly low-light performance. I thought I was being paranoid, but I'm a photographer and the hotel I walked across everyday in the evening had these beautiful hanging creepers which combined with golden lighting, always provided a pleasant sight. So, I loved taking pictures of it randomly until one day I noticed that regardless of the camera mode, the noise was insanely high and the pictures suddenly looked like they were taken from an old Android phone from 2015. I cleaned the lenses, had no cover, etc. I copied the images to my computer and the difference was clearly visible. After a little bit digging, it turns out, I wasn't the only one. A lot of people had complained about the lagginess around iPhone launch dates. This is an old graph from Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Ff0ttigcjyra21.png%3Fwidth%3D1080%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D0b1e903bc27710fc78748c8854646abd014785dc https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.... This is actual data from Google trends: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=iphone%20slow&hl=en https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=iphone%2... You can clearly see a spike in as recent as September 2025. But, the camera data was the last straw for me. As a photographer who paid $1000+ for the iPhone Pro Max - supposedly their latest and greatest phone of the time, only to get screwed over by greed 2 years later, I had enough. I sold the iPhone at a loss, got myself a Samsung Note and I actually took pictures of the same hotel again and the difference was stark. That really told me everything I needed to know about Apple's ethics. In contrast, I also have a Samsung S10+ from ages ago and it still functions flawlessly. The trade off clearly is privacy with the Android eco-system, but until we have a decent Apple alternative that's also privacy focused, I'm forced to accept this trade off. Funnily enough, my iPad and Macbooks never get slowed down, even if it's 5+ years. It's only for the iPhones. I guess they view the iPhone as fast fashion or something, but the ethical component is not acceptable to me.

1y ago

LorenDB 1y ago

I just switched from a Motorola Razr+ to a OnePlus 13 because the Razr's internal display cable apparently started flaking out, probably because I dropped it on the hinge on concrete a while back. I almost got another Razr, but even though I got a "normal" phone this time around, I'm tentatively planning to move back to a foldable once my OnePlus is old and gray. Foldables are just so nice; the flip style for me is especially convenient since it is more compact in a pocket. I also feel like we're almost to the tipping point where we can consider folding displays solved to the point that new generations start having marginal iterations (as opposed to "wow, the crease is so much smaller!" and "Oh look, they finally got foldables IP68 rated!").

zhyder 1y ago

I've thought larger bi-folds have an odd aspect ratio for anything but two-app multi-tasking. E.g. there's ~ no benefit for videos compared to non-foldables with half the screen area. Is aspect ratio not an issue in practice somehow?

JoshTriplett 1y ago
It's a great aspect ratio for reading or writing. And it does increase the size of videos somewhat, compared to using the outer screen in landscape orientation.
baby 1y ago
Yeah videos aren't as big as they could be due to the aspect ratio, they still look bigger though and its enough of a life improvement that I always flip mine open when I want to watch a video!

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fennecbutt 1y ago

Doesn't have the same polish? Are you kidding me. How do you go back on iOS? Oh yeah it depends on which app and sometimes even where you are within one app. On android? Use the navigation bar or the same back gesture, every time all the time.

yreg 1y ago
I never ever had a problem of not being sure how to go back in an iOS app, so I don't see why a dedicated button is such a missing feature. Polish is also about visual consistency and Android is behind on that front.
- skylurk 1y ago
  I switched to an iPhone five years ago and still miss the consistency of the Android back button. If a webpage embeds a full-width map, for example, the Safari back swipe is blocked by a pan action, and you need to jiggle the page's scroll to get the back button to show up at the bottom.
- phatfish 1y ago
  iOS is filled with UI junk at this point. Not having a consistent way to go back is the least of my problems when attempting to use my wife's iPhone. It is the most obvious though, having to tap right at the top left (usually) of the screen for the most frequently used action is incomprehensible.
  - fortyseven 1y ago
    I dabbled a bit with iOS. I'm a long time Android fan, and I was curious, so I gave it a shot. And you're absolutely right. Even if you've come to expect backwards navigation to be in the top left, how the hell is that convenient? Assuming a right-handed individual, that means you have to stretch all the way up there or bring your left hand into play. And if you're left-handed, you still need to reach all the way up at the top of the screen. It's baffling. But we'll have people here defending it, for some unknown reason. Probably because they're used to it. Just like I'm not used to it as an Android guy so I find it repulsive. But I can also back it up with just the constraints of the human hand. For what it's worth, I don't have the navigation bar at the bottom. I just use gestures, so anywhere I swipe off screen to on screen, it's considered a back gesture. Which, once you get used to it, you cannot go back. Well, you can. By swiping. ;}

vidarh 1y ago

Same. I haven't used my tablet since I got mine.

janpmz 1y ago

What are you doing on the large screen?

deleted 1y ago

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epolanski 1y ago

> is really the next technological breakthrough we were waiting for I'm 99% convinced that the iPhone Air is the crippled child of Apple's intention to make a foldable. They couldn't nail the foldable part (for the time being at least) so they just launched the Air with the things they nailed about the design. > android also doesn't have the same polish as iOS Could you provide examples here? Don't get if this is a "feels" thing. The things that imho iOS really nails better are: - integration with devices (in the same Apple ecosystem) - battery life when browsing What else?

skeezyboy 1y ago

? I use it a lot to read PDFs and watch videos... only if I cannot reasonably access a computer will i use a thumb-typing touchscreen device to do serious work. as computing devices, they are sub-par when compared to desktops. as telephones, they are subpar compared to dumbphones

kevin_thibedeau 1y ago

> the battery kinda suck Probably because of all the AI integration stuff. You don't get something for nothing. Turn on battery saver, data saver, and decrease brightness (and refresh rate if possible). Still, You have three screens worth of volume taking away space for a larger battery. That's the deal with folders.