Why I Switched to iPhone

After owning many Android phones for several years, including models from LG, Samsung, and Motorola, I have come to a revelation that has made me decide to switch over to iPhone entirely and to reassess what a phone should be and how long I should expect to be able to use it for. 

Aside from owning one Windows Phone for about a year in highschool and a feature phone prior to highschool, I have really only ever used Android and I used to believe it was the best option on the market. In the past, I have only been able to hold onto my phones for a period between 6 months and 2 years. Now, I've only ever had three devices last only 6 months to under a year for me. One was a water damaged LG G5 that I got conned into buying for the same price as a refurbished model on Amazon by a former friend, the other was the Moto G5 that replaced this phone, that was incredibly limited on storage space and had issues with boot looping, overheating, dropping calls, and extreme UI lag. The third was my most recent and likely last Android phone.

As a tech enthusiast who worked in Construction, I would often find myself torn between wanting a good flagship phone, but also needing to bring my phone to work to communicate to other colleagues when we would have to split up and communicate with the boss whenever I needed assistance. However, the phones I would bring to work would often get dirty, with dust getting into the ports, some phones had the occasional fall and even worse when it was from heights, in addition to cold/heat stress, and other environmental risks that I just could not in good conscience, expose an expensive flagship device to. Initially, when I started working, I would only buy Motorola phones, since they usually seemed fairly durable and they were inexpensive enough that if one broke, I could just go out the next day and pick up another without ever having to sign into an evil financing program or 2-3 year contract. When a device would break, I would always take personal responsibility for it and replace it without thinking twice. However, the ones that did break would typically last me at least a year or so before any sort of major accident occurred that would render the device unusable. However, some devices did not break due to accidental circumstances, but were broken by bad updates, usually after the first or second year. Eventually, I started making enough money to be able to comfortably afford a flagship LG G8X Dual Screen, the phone of my dreams! As someone who regularly uses desktop computers with at least 2-3 screens, I was instantly captivated by this device and its further abilities to plug into a computer monitor, keyboard, and mouse, to present me with a desktop UI! This phone really felt like the future and I knew it would be one that I would have a very difficult time finding an adequate replacement for. I babied this phone and left it at home, still using my Moto G7 Power for work purposes, then on the weekends, holidays, or other time off, I would swap my SIM card into my LG to experience the joy of using a much more premium device outside of work hours. The G7 Power had become increasingly slow and glitchy with updates, but I figured that could have also been a result of the abuse it suffered on the jobsite causing some hardware problems. The only speaker on the device (the same one used for calling) was plugged up with something that I was unable to adequately flush out, so taking calls on that phone meant either connecting a Bluetooth headset or putting it on speakerphone, cranking the volume all the way up, and holding it right next to my ear, but if the environment around me was noisy, there was nothing I could possibly do to hear the other person but wait for it to quiet down or move to a quiet area. I lived with this until that phone fell off my trunk lip one day and the screen got smashed over a raised curb (an unfortunate end to a very durable device). Following this, I replaced that phone with a Moto G8 Power, since the G7 was already 2 years old anyway and it was time for a replacement.

The Moto G8 did not have a very forgiving lifespan either. It ended up landing in a couple buckets of water, it fell from scissor lifts, and it generally got banged up quite a bit. But despite all of this, I was still able to squeeze a full year of ownership out of it before the water damage got to it and started making the screen flicker green, the phone started randomly boot looping, and it was showing obvious signs that it was done. Meanwhile, around the same time, my LG G8X Dual Screen had gotten an update to Android 12 that had completely shattered my User Experience! I now owned a flagship Android phone that was just over 2 years old, that I always went out of my way to take care of, to baby, and to keep out of harm's way, especially since the whole thing was practically made out of glass! Physically, the phone is still brand new as I am writing this article, however, this less than 3 year old flagship Android was practically crippled by this update! The dual screen feature would often either not work at all, the secondary screen would flicker, or the image would be messed up, until I locked and unlocked the device a few times and messed with some settings to turn the second display off and on again. The UI became incredibly sluggish with extreme lag for just about any activity I wanted to do with it, and some key UI elements were just outright broken or would break as I used the device!

When the Moto G8 gave up the ghost and with the LG G8X now having these issues, despite spending most of its life in a drawer, I decided to just meet these two devices in the middle and go back to one mid-range device that I would take much better care of and that I vowed to only use in safe situations, when I was either seated or standing in a safe area with no hazards nearby to possibly damage the phone. That phone was my Motorola G Stylus 5G (2022). After about six months of ownership and without taking any abuse whatsoever, this phone's GPS module started acting up; it started displaying my location in an area that I was nowhere near, and it was so bad that I would get home from work, I would be sitting in my driveway, and my Android Auto would indicate that I still have an ETA of 20 minutes to get home. One time, I even tried to order an Uber back from my buddy's place after a night of having a few beers, catching up, and playing some games, only for this stupid thing to send the Uber driver to a location in a whole other region of the city, nowhere near me, and I ended up having to pay a service fee for sending the driver on a wild goose chase. When I contacted Motorola for support, they told me to send it in and they would either fix or replace the phone within about a week. But being that this was my daily phone and the LG was having serious issues, I wasn't sure what I was going to do for a phone while I waited for this warranty repair. I also wasn't too thrilled with needing to go through the process of restoring backups and setting the device up exactly the way I wanted it to be configured again. When I opened my drawer of old phones, I saw my old iPhone SE 2016 sitting there. This was a phone I had purchased initially because my old car had an iPod interface that was only compatible with Apple devices and I wanted to have my music organized properly using that interface, so I picked it up used as a 64 GB model around 2020 for $120 and was shocked when it got iOS 15 back in 2021 and even moreso that it didn't break the device, nor did it slow down! The longest I've had support on an Android was with my flagship LG, which was only updated for 3 years and broken with the final update.

I was even more shocked when I powered on this iPhone to find that it wanted to update to version 15.7.3, which released, at the time, just over a month earlier! And at the time of writing this article, on July 18, 2023, the latest supported version that I've found through research, is version 15.7.7, released on June 21, 2023! I haven't tested this version on my SE 2016 yet, but I was mindblown that, despite the phone being over 7 years old, it is still getting security updates and it still has a degree of support from the manufacturer! Curious to see how this phone would be as a daily driver, and now fed up with Android's shenanigans, I figured I may as well give it an honest try and if I like it, I can just continue using it until I save up for a new iPhone and I can just sell the Motorola when it comes back. I purchased a battery case for this thing and I popped my SIM in the tray, and I was instantly taken aback by how usable this device from 2016 was in 2023, a whole 7 years later! It easily ran just as well as I remember my LG did when I first unboxed it and easily as well as my Moto G Stylus did before the issues started! My only complaint with this phone was the tiny screen! I was able to daily this phone for about 2+ months before I got my tax reimbursement for the year. At which point, I decided to purchase my next flagship: my iPhone 14 Pro Max in Gold! 

However, just as I was concerned with the LG, I still did not feel comfortable taking such a device into work with me in the event that the unthinkable should happen, so I kept using the SE 2016 for a few more weeks after getting the Pro Max, until I came across a used iPhone SE (2020) for $220! If you would like to read more about that device and how I turned a cheap used iPhone SE with a bad battery into my daily driver, with a screen time that could last 8+ hours without needing to plug into a charger, you can read more about that in this linked article.

Although the Pro Max, like most iPhones, was expensive; when I break down the cost of, say a Pro Max 512 GB, at $1,969, I can safely assume that the phone should last at least the 7 years that I got out of my iPhone SE 2016. With that in mind, my experience with Android was that they generally only last between 1 and 3 years, with the final update usually crippling the device, forcing consumers to buy a new model. I also knew that I wanted another flagship, as I really missed the performance and features of the G8X that even the newer Moto Stylus didn't have. And when you compare Android flagships, a lot of them cost close to the same as a flagship iPhone, with the difference being that Androids just don't last as long. Even when asking friends about their experience, they usually say something like "I upgraded from the Galaxy S20 to the S22", so I figure 2 years is a fair median to benchmark the iPhone against. Over a 7 year cycle, the iPhone would last 3.5 times that of an Android. However, I have researched online and have found articles from people claiming to have gotten 10 years out of their iPhones before replacing them. If that's the case, the iPhone could technically be stretched out to last 5 times as long as an average Android. So if you break down that $1,969 price tag, if you can get 7 years, that would be equivalent to buying a $562.57 Android every time the manufacturer decides that you need to upgrade.
If you only keep it for the Apple guaranteed 5 year feature update cycle, it would be equivalent to buying 2.5 Androids at $787.60 each. But if you do manage to get a full 10 years out of your iPhone, that would be equivalent to buying 5 Androids over the same life cycle at $393.80. And there are still cheaper iPhones! 

If you break down the base level Pro Max at 128GB, it's $1,549, which breaks down to 2.5 Androids at $619.60 over 5 years, 3.5 Androids at $442.57 over 7 years, and 5 Androids at $309.80 over 10 years. If you get the Pro, it's $1,399 starting, which breaks down to $559.60/5 Yrs, $399.71/7 Yrs, and $279.80/10 Yrs. The base model iPhone 14 (non Pro/Pro Max/Plus) is $1,099 for the base 128 GB variant, which breaks down to $439.60/5 Yrs, $314/7 Yrs, and $219.80/10 Yrs. For the frugal people out there, the SE is also a very optimal option, the 128 GB variant is $649 upfront, which breaks down to $259.60/5 Yrs, $185.43/7 Yrs, and $129.80/10 Yrs, with the base model 64 GB starting at $579, which would be the cheapest new option, which breaks down to $231.60/5 Yrs, $165.43/7 Yrs, and $115.80/10 Yrs.

I am in no way sponsored by Apple. I have just spent quite a bit of time thinking about this, researching it, and asking friends and family who have used iPhone. Granted, you may need to replace your iPhone's battery if you want to keep it past 5 years and you may also need a battery case after 2-3 years for optimal battery life, especially on less expensive models with smaller batteries. Prior to this year, I would have never thought that an iPhone could present a wiser financial decision than buying Android and I would have laughed at the idea, but I was shocked both by my iPhone SE 2016 and my iPhone SE (2020).