Effectively, that modified a number of months in the past — first, I obtained to overview the Asus ROG Cellphone 8 and totally loved utilizing it past that interval (minus the digicam). After that, I hopped straight to the Galaxy S24 Extremely and — as proven in my “long run overview” from a few weeks in the past — I’m nonetheless using that Samsung expertise.
In different phrases, my every day driver now could be the Galaxy S24 Extremely, and I’m not even trying again on the iPhone 15 Professional Max.
Is it an issue? Is it a shock to the system? Is switching that scary, actually?
Switching the ecosystem isn’t so laborious, however it’s daunting
There are a number of the reason why folks don’t change from the iPhone. The principle one is that — they’re fairly stable telephones, predictably good throughout the board, from efficiency to digicam. The software program expertise is refined and acquainted, and the product itself hardly ever disappoints the informal person.Then, there are added burdens to the change — even for those who think about doing it, you will have a variety of issues already tied into iCloud. Even excited about transferring all of that stuff is daunting:
- Years price of pictures and movies
- Your contacts and calendar
- Passwords with Keychain
- Internet searching bookmarks and historical past
- Banking and authentication apps
- Any equipment like AirTags or AirPods both don’t work, or don’t work nearly as good
- The system ecosystem, FaceTime and iMessage
OK, let’s take it one by one. Transferring your contacts, occasions, pictures, and movies is definitely fairly straightforward. There’s a devoted Switch to Android app that may be discovered on the App Retailer, which may do this for you, in reality (footage and movies take a few days to be copied over).
Alternatively, you possibly can arrange a Google account in your iPhone, previous to switching, and have it so it syncs your contacts and Gallery (additionally, you will want Google Photographs to do that manually). Internet information may also be transferred to a Chrome app on the iPhone, then synced with the identical Google account.
For issues like internet passwords and specialised banking and authentication apps — sure, these would require some extra work and time, nevertheless it’s not undoable — you already did it as soon as, proper? And any {hardware} equipment you will have in your iPhone, yeah, you must say “bye” to these.
The Galaxy S24 Extremely expertise offers me (nearly) every thing I would like
OK, so, how’s life on the opposite aspect of the fence? Is the headache price it and am I getting extra out of the Galaxy S24 Extremely than I used to be getting from the iPhone 15 Professional Max?
To that final query — effectively, sure and no.
For a lot of the software program expertise, I get a variety of the identical choices on the Galaxy as on the iPhone. No must level fingers and name out “This function was stolen, that function was copied”. Through the years, Android has borrowed from iOS and iOS has borrowed from Android — any function that’s helpful often makes it to the opposite aspect of the fence.
We, as prospects, solely stand to profit from this.
For instance, I really like the flexibility to faucet and maintain on a topic in a photograph. The telephone’s algorithms will separate it from the background and generate it as a brand new picture — a sticker with clear background. Throw that into Canva and edit a YouTube thumbnail. As a content material creator — this makes it so, really easy. That individual function was debuted by Apple, however in a short time made it to Android.
Carry a topic from any photograph
Then, the Galaxy S24 Extremely has the distinctive S Pen. Not only for writing — again to my Canva instance, I can use the Pen for effective faucets and edits in apps which can be sometimes irritating to work on with contact controls.
Is the Galaxy S24 Extremely digicam higher than the iPhone digicam?
In keeping with our digicam benchmark, sure — somewhat bit. In keeping with my extended use and experimentation with it — as famous in my “residing with” article — it’s not, when pushed at numerous unpredictable conditions. And, closing judgement — in my very own opinion — I don’t care.
Not in an apathetic type of manner — it’s simply very, superb, and pixel peeping is type of moot at this level. Again to my level about why folks don’t change from the iPhone — as a result of it’s predictably dependable. Effectively, I can say the identical in regards to the Galaxy S24 Extremely in each facet, the digicam included.
Full overview, samples, benchmarks: Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely vs iPhone 15 Professional Max: The Battle of Titans
The issues that the Galaxy S24 Extremely does higher
OK, however there must be some type of purpose, proper? Why make the change from iPhone to Galaxy within the first place?
Setting apart the truth that I merely obtained tired of iOS after a number of years. The Galaxy S24 Extremely has:
- A contemporary design, which I fairly like nonetheless
- The S Pen
- Break up display and floating apps
- Facet taskbar for app shortcuts and fast multitasking
- Beautiful, pretty display because of the low-reflection Gorilla Armor glass
- Higher homescreen enhancing — icon positions, widgets
It’s a really good telephone by all accounts, it has a unbelievable workflow with the various methods you possibly can open apps on it, it runs nice, and it feels nice. And I type of just like the Galaxy screens a bit greater than I just like the iPhone screens. In any case, Samsung has years and years of expertise in working with OLED.
Fairly AMOLED
The floating app function — that’s positively one thing I missed whereas on iOS. Principally, any app from the sidebar could be opened in floating window mode. So, if I would like a fast calculator or foreign money converter, I pull that in. If I’m chatting and must open a fast Chrome window — I can do this with out closing the chat (or by minimizing the chat in a window).
Do not thoughts me, simply searching stuff I am not going to purchase
Ah… MY homescreen
Utilizing the S Pen to mark the Calendar can be a favourite function of mine — simply drawing enormous bins of dates if you end up out there or busy is such an natural manner of referencing your schedule. Similar goes for notes — jotting down concepts and every day agenda continues to be a greater manner of bringing order to chaos, in comparison with sort textual content.
But it surely’s not all sunshine and rainbows — there are nonetheless issues that may make you miss an iPhone.
The issues that the Galaxy S24 Extremely does worse
The Gallery is a multitude. I do know, the iPhone has type of a nasty file system, proper? Even for those who do have a Information app, you barely have entry to the precise information. And it nonetheless works in that archaic manner the place each app is its personal “field” and wishes to repeat information over to its personal folder to be able to edit or work with them in some capability.
However the Galaxy S24 Extremely‘s photograph gallery — and that’s an Android factor total — is annoying on the entire different finish of the spectrum. Your downloads and your incoming pictures appear to have a thoughts of their very own and are available no matter folder they really feel like in the present day. The Gallery makes it simpler by discovering and exhibiting you just about each image you may have in your telephone.
However which means which you could have your meme downloads combined up with your loved ones pictures, except you make the aware effort to manually go to “Albums -> Digicam” each time. And sharing an image from inside a chat app can be a jumbled mess, because it has a tough time to chronologically organize your pictures — the order you see within the Gallery is probably not the identical order you see throughout the sharing display in Messenger, for instance.
So, I’ve Downloads, however I even have WhatsApp and Viber photos, and likewise Fast Share, but in addition Photos, which is totally different from the Digicam folder and positively totally different to the Current folder
There’s additionally no manner round the truth that there’s no FaceTime and no iMessage. And I do know that’s an enormous deal within the US, since each pal group’s collective consciousness appears to insist on by no means making an attempt WhatsApp.
Additionally, in case your app pursuits are a bit extra area of interest, chances are you’ll not discover the apps you want on the Play Retailer. To be honest — this has gotten a lot better over time, and most builders now construct apps in parallel for each ecosystems. Or they launch for Android with a minor delay. Nonetheless, most not too long ago, I discovered myself in a real-life scenario the place I can’t obtain an app — an app that’s used to edit the settings and presets for a brand-new guitar impact that I had purchased. It’s just for iPhone, in the intervening time.
To cap it off, the AirTag that’s presently hanging off my automotive keys is sort of ineffective now — I do nonetheless have an iPad if I would like to trace it. Although, Samsung’s Good Tag 2 appears like a really respectable substitute. Having to modify that over is only a ache level of the complete ecosystem change, however there’s a resolution none the much less.
I nonetheless use a MacBook and an iPad, however I can’t say I’m lacking AirDrop an excessive amount of — with apps like SendAnywhere, AirDash, Android File Switch, or good previous Drive and — you continue to have loads of choices.
Ultimate phrase — is Galaxy S24 Extremely higher than iPhone 15 Professional Max?
No, nevertheless it’s additionally not worse. They’re extraordinarily premium telephones for barely totally different customers. At the moment, I choose the Galaxy for the design, multitasking workflow, S Pen. And I type of just like the digicam a bit extra, even when its HDR generally slips — I choose that output.
That mentioned, for those who pry it out of my arms and chuck an iPhone my manner, I’m not going to complain. It simply goes to indicate that these gadgets have grown and matured a lot. This 12 months, Samsung additionally upgraded its software program replace coverage — now promising 7 years of help. This does greater than measure as much as Apple’s typical 5 years of updates. And it implies that, it doesn’t matter what aspect of the fence you’re on, you continue to win.