Title: Long-time iOS user considering switch to Android - Need advice on $1000 flagships
Body:
Hey everyone, I’m looking at phones around the $1000 price point and would love some input. I’ve been an iOS user for years but I’m seriously considering making the jump to Android this time.
Here’s what I’m looking at:
iPhone 17 Pro - The safe choice since I’m already in the ecosystem
Samsung Galaxy S25 - Hearing good things about this generation
Pixel 10 Pro - Probably crossing this one off the list due to the stability issues I’ve been reading about (the 911 call failures, overheating problems, etc.)
Nothing Phone - The design looks really cool, but I’m not sure if they have anything in this price range
For those who’ve made the switch from iOS to Android (or vice versa), what would you recommend? Any major gotchas I should know about? And is the Nothing Phone even worth considering as a daily driver at this price point?
Thanks in advance!
Just jumped from Android to iOS, and I maintain Android phones for family, seen lots of both since the iPhone 4.
My advice…
Cheap out.
Either keep your phone or get an iPhone on firesale. There is no point to getting a Pro.
Android freaking sucks now, as you can either get a custom ROM and break finance apps, or bog your phone down (and let it go obsolete, quickly) with the stock operating system and rampant spyware via every app you install. You can’t even uninstall bloatware anymore, like you used to. And it will get worse once sideloading is gone.
And flagship Android phones are awful. They either cost a fortune unlocked and ‘mostly stock,’ or they run absolutely horrid, spammy, battery sucking UIs (looking at you, Samsung).
…Apple pro phones are no different. I just went on a whole vacation with iPhone 16 Plus and 17 Pros side by side, and its just not worth spending more on anymore. The UI has regressed some. But at least Apple reigns in/restrics apps you install and keeps the experience pretty clean.
If you want great pictures, grab a nice point and shoot with optical zoom and sensor stabilization. They’re incredible now. In fact, on a recent trip, I discovered my 2008 Canon takes better zoom photos than brand new iPhone 17 Pros.
EDIT:
If you must get an Android phone, get one with as close-to-stock a UI as possible.
I do not game on phones, but my best experiences have, ironically, been with ‘gaming’ phones like the Razer Phone 2 and Asus phones. They have gigantic batteries, lots of RAM, and lean, stock UIs that let you disable/uninstall apps, hence they’re fast as heck and last forever. I only gave up my Razer Phone 2 because the mic got clogged up with dust, and I miss it.
The phones in the midrange are getting to be better than the top end ones in my opinion. Decent enough build quality for the phone to last 3-4 years. Expensive enough that the bloatware is reduced. If the company does do a modified launcher it’s generally pretty clean.
I am liking the OnePlus 13R I picked up. Stable UI, decent battery life, and not a bad price. The stock launcher does a pretty decent job.
For my work phone I have a Pixel 8. I really regret buying it. I had to disable 30 different bloatware apps. Plus I have 4 apps that I have rejected all updates because they can’t be disabled. I also installed a launcher because the stock pixel UI is trash. The hardware is solid and works well once you clear out the buggy bloatware
Apple made a major fuckup with IOS26. I upgraded my iPad and felt nauseous from the blur effect almost instantly. I can’t completely get rid of it, just make it less horrific. Their “new” multitasking options I am not even bothering to turn on or try to use yet. This is like their 10th edition of multitasking. Let’s see if they get it right this time. Then I will bother to learn their “simple” process that usually involves having to read a manual and remember half a dozen new commands. Fuck it still takes me 2 or 3 attempts to get the the home screen without a button.
If you haven’t tried yet, for your iPad try going Settings -> Accessibility-> Motion, and enable Reduce Motion and Prefer Cross-Fade Transitions. Both helped me, because I hated the blur effects too.
Alternatively, go into Accessibility-> Display and Text Size and turn on Reduce Transparency. This pretty much eliminates the garbage transparent nonsense. I actually enjoy the motion effects and the one time I tried turning them off, I found it pretty jarring. But reduce transparency pretty much wipes it out. It’s a solid option.
Yep I did it. There is still some annoying bits of it floating around that you can’t get rid of.
The only other thing I’ve found that helped was under Accessibility -> Display & Text Size -> Reduce Transparency, the nausea-inducing design decisions really are baffling
Custom Roms like Graphene, Calyx are the answer. And there are quite a few finance apps that do work, look it up for the ones you actually need before switching.
While I kind of agree (though I don’t really like the “gamer” aesthetics), Asus only offers two major updates and two years of patches, which is quite short.
https://www.androidauthority.com/phone-update-policies-1658633/
If someone games with their phone and plans to frequently upgrade for new hardware, they may not care. But if you get the hardware just to have a large battery and RAM, that may be a concern.
EDIT: Also, no mmWave support, which may or may not matter to someone.