2016 Android->iPhone migration Questions

[Skripka]

I'm getting fed up with Android and Android OEMs on many levels....a few questions, since I've read a variety of things:

A) How well do iPhones actually run OS upgrades that come down these days (say the last 3 generations)? I've heard varying things from "fine" to "buy a new phone if you want the new OS".

B) I was reading this: Move from Android to iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch , does it actually work that well/easily IRL? Or do you get half-imported half corrupt brokenness to fix in contacts etc?

C) I presume I need some Apple account something or other or create one....that a whole email domain setup or just another account?

D) How bad are iOS apps about subscriptions and ad-support annoyances? Are the prices comparable between Android/iOS?

E) Adguard sort of works on Android, but not as well as rooted hosts blocking (Some sites/networks dislike VPN connections)....same for iOS?

F) Android is presently running a 2+ year old Linux kernel (missing a ton of features including but not limited to security)....I presume since iOS is closed no one really knows how bad iOS is on that score? I'm curious here so feel free to explain.

G) Google Apps are on iTunes store I presume, they work as well? Such as good old Hangouts Lag and so on...

H) Recommended storage space? How realistic is an onboard 32GB SSD for iOS? (read: I have no idea how much space iOS takes up nor how heavy in code iOS apps have to be).



Thinking an iPhone7+ to replace my old Shamu here.

 

[Mad Maxx]

iPhone user for many years (3GS to 6+), switched to Android with S7E and HTC 10. Now, back with iPhone (7+ 256GB). It's the fastest phone I've ever used. Really like it.

A) My experience with iOS upgrades has been very good, though I've known others who had to deal with radio and battery issues after receiving them.

B) iOS and Android are a lot more alike than not, IMO. Migrating between them is pretty easy. If you love tweaking and tinkering, you might be frustrated with iOS. Jailbreaking opens up the OS, but JBs are released at intermittent times. Sometimes, it'll be 6-9-12 months between new JBs after Apple fixes vulnerabilities.

C) You need to create an iTunes account with any existing email.

D) App prices are about the same, in the $1 to $5 range.

E) Never tried an ad blocker on iOS or Android

F) No clue

G) Google apps generally run quite smoothly on iOS, in my experience. I've used Gmail, Maps, Google Drive with no troubles.

H) 32GB is fine if you stream your music, videos, etc. My 6+ was 64GB and I never filled it even half way. I got a 256GB when my 128GB was dropped down a flight of stairs by my boss. The back orders are longest with the 128GB. Latest shipping estimates are late November - mid December. Some 32GB and 256GB colors ship as early as next week.

Hope this helps.

 

[CHANG3D]

It's pretty easy to move, cause most of the Google and Microsoft apps are on iOS. But I do recommend that you export your contacts out of Google and import into iCloud. I also recommend disabling Mail and use Outlook instead.

Ad blocker only work with Safari, and other browsers with built-in ad blockers.

Storage depends on how many photos and apps you'll download. I had manage my storage, uninstalling apps, deleting uploaded photos all the time on my 16 GB iPhone 6. I was at 49 GB on my iPhone 64 GB 6S. Now I'm at 36 GB on my 128 GB iPhone 7 Plus (not everything transferred over). Also, if you care about storage benchmarks, Tests show that one iPhone 7 model is actually slower than all the others

Apps generally do run way smooth than on Android due to 1) most likely better coding, and 2) iPhone is way more selective on its multitasking, which is beneficial to processing and battery life.

iTunes on the Mac is better than the crapiTunes in the PC... I guess it's just not a priority for Apple to fix its PC app.

I'm not paying for iCloud 50GB storage, because Amazon gave me unlimited storage for $60 a year while Prime already gave me unlimited photo storage. And I have a plex server at home. I do not have enough iCloud storage to do iCloud backup. So I'm letting iTunes do it. Changing from iPhones to iPhones are also a piece of cake thanks to the iTunes backup and restore function.

 

[Vermillion]

I'm getting fed up with Android and Android OEMs on many levels....a few questions, since I've read a variety of things:

A) How well do iPhones actually run OS upgrades that come down these days (say the last 3 generations)? I've heard varying things from "fine" to "buy a new phone if you want the new OS".

B) I was reading this: Move from Android to iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch , does it actually work that well/easily IRL? Or do you get half-imported half corrupt brokenness to fix in contacts etc?

C) I presume I need some Apple account something or other or create one....that a whole email domain setup or just another account?

D) How bad are iOS apps about subscriptions and ad-support annoyances? Are the prices comparable between Android/iOS?

E) Adguard sort of works on Android, but not as well as rooted hosts blocking (Some sites/networks dislike VPN connections)....same for iOS?

F) Android is presently running a 2+ year old Linux kernel (missing a ton of features including but not limited to security)....I presume since iOS is closed no one really knows how bad iOS is on that score? I'm curious here so feel free to explain.

G) Google Apps are on iTunes store I presume, they work as well? Such as good old Hangouts Lag and so on...

H) Recommended storage space? How realistic is an onboard 32GB SSD for iOS? (read: I have no idea how much space iOS takes up nor how heavy in code iOS apps have to be).



Thinking an iPhone7+ to replace my old Shamu here.

A) So far the wife's iPhone 6S seems to have handled well. She hasn't upgraded to iOS 10 just yet though. Will probably force her to upgrade tonight. Our iPad Air seems a tad laggy after upgrading to iOS 10 though. But I don't use it enough to be 100% sure.

B) No idea. Never had to do that. All her contacts and things are in Google. Her photos are in Google. So for her migrating either way is a piece of cake.

C) Apple ID. Wife's is tied to her GMail account. No additional accounts needed to my knowledge but I could be wrong. I never bothered looking too closely.

D) Prices are comparable. What I do find is that some iOS apps will cost money on iOS but be ad-supported on Android.

E) Adguard doesn't work on apps on iOS. It only works in Safari. I find that Adguard works well on my G5 so don't know why you're having issues with it.

F) iOS uses a hybrid kernel (XNU) that was originally developed for NeXT and is related to BSD. So who knows what the version number actually means.

G) Google apps typically run the same on my wife's iPhone as my G5. The only issues she runs into is Apple craptastic background functions so things like Google Photos can't automatically upload photos to the cloud unless the app is open.

H) My wife only has a 16GB iPhone 6S and she's completely starved for space and that's even after removing all Photos that have been moved to Google Photos. YMMV though. I would assume 32GB is enough for most people but who knows. What kills me is the size of iMessage messages. My wife doesn't typically use SMS directly. She and her friends are all on iPhone so all use iMessage thanks to Apple forcing them to that without asking. She's at 2.2GB of messages... I've never had a messaging app anywhere near that before on Android. Again though your mileage will vary.

 

[The Lurker]

I can speak to B. My wife went from a Nexus 5 to an Iphone 5SE using this tool and it was pretty seamless.

 

[AltTabbins]

A) How well do iPhones actually run OS upgrades that come down these days (say the last 3 generations)? I've heard varying things from "fine" to "buy a new phone if you want the new OS".

Generally really well. When you have an ecosystem where you control the hardware, its easy manage updates. I have personally seen people use it on their iphone 5 (released in 2012) and it runs very well.

B) I was reading this: Move from Android to iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch , does it actually work that well/easily IRL? Or do you get half-imported half corrupt brokenness to fix in contacts etc?

It's very easy. The good news after that is you can back up all of your stuff automatically after the transition. I've never had to screw around with my contacts, pictures, messages, etc etc going from one iphone to the next.

C) I presume I need some Apple account something or other or create one....that a whole email domain setup or just another account?

You can use any email address.

D) How bad are iOS apps about subscriptions and ad-support annoyances? Are the prices comparable between Android/iOS?

IOS is pretty transparent when it comes to this. They have different icons and terms for paid, free, and free (with paid content). Each of those 3 has a different icon in the app store that you press to get the app.

E) Adguard sort of works on Android, but not as well as rooted hosts blocking (Some sites/networks dislike VPN connections)....same for iOS?

There are ad blockers for IOS. Firefox makes one called "Focus" that works really well. The only downside is that they only work in Safari. I've never really had any issues with VPNs, but I use privateinternetaccess (a paid VPN). I have heard some people have issues with free ones.

F) Android is presently running a 2+ year old Linux kernel (missing a ton of features including but not limited to security)....I presume since iOS is closed no one really knows how bad iOS is on that score? I'm curious here so feel free to explain.

Apple is very good with security. Again, going back to the fact that they control it and the apps that can go on it, there isn't much room for vulnerabilities. Its a constant struggle for the jailbreak community to keep up with Apple to even find exploits to allow jailbreaking.

G) Google Apps are on iTunes store I presume, they work as well? Such as good old Hangouts Lag and so on...

They work great. The funny thing is they are generally updated faster than on Android. I remember a couple years back, IOS got the new version of Hangouts first and the Android community about shit themselves they were so angry.

H) Recommended storage space? How realistic is an onboard 32GB SSD for iOS? (read: I have no idea how much space iOS takes up nor how heavy in code iOS apps have to be).

32 would be basic user stuff. I personally get the biggest I can get, but I have movies, pictures, tons of apps, and a huge music collection. Im not the kind of person to store everything in the cloud, you might be different.

 

[entropism]

Actually, stepping in here about E - AdGuard just released their "pro" version, works the same way as it does on Android, which is VPN based, total system wide ad block. As of last week it was on sale for $1 to celebrate. No idea about it now. I used AdGuard and loved it on my S7, and it works absolutely just as well on iOS. If you missed the sale, there are other alternatives that do the same for $2-5

 

[CHANG3D]

If we're going to talk vpn, even private Internet access (pia) as ad blocking features. And pia is better vpn in general.

 

[entropism]

Chang3d, it's not VPN per se. It's a fake VPN that's based on a localhost loopback. In effect, it allows you to change the HOSTS file without dealing with root or jailbreak, or in the iphone's case, only having Safari/Firefox able to use adblockers. Some people just like using Chrome, I'm one of them.

This is also $1 once, vs $3.33/month. If you don't actually NEED a VPN, it's silly to spend almost $40/year just to block ads.

 

[Trimlock]

I'm getting fed up with Android and Android OEMs on many levels....a few questions, since I've read a variety of things:

A) How well do iPhones actually run OS upgrades that come down these days (say the last 3 generations)? I've heard varying things from "fine" to "buy a new phone if you want the new OS".

B) I was reading this: Move from Android to iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch , does it actually work that well/easily IRL? Or do you get half-imported half corrupt brokenness to fix in contacts etc?

C) I presume I need some Apple account something or other or create one....that a whole email domain setup or just another account?

D) How bad are iOS apps about subscriptions and ad-support annoyances? Are the prices comparable between Android/iOS?

E) Adguard sort of works on Android, but not as well as rooted hosts blocking (Some sites/networks dislike VPN connections)....same for iOS?

F) Android is presently running a 2+ year old Linux kernel (missing a ton of features including but not limited to security)....I presume since iOS is closed no one really knows how bad iOS is on that score? I'm curious here so feel free to explain.

G) Google Apps are on iTunes store I presume, they work as well? Such as good old Hangouts Lag and so on...

H) Recommended storage space? How realistic is an onboard 32GB SSD for iOS? (read: I have no idea how much space iOS takes up nor how heavy in code iOS apps have to be).



Thinking an iPhone7+ to replace my old Shamu here.

A) You'd be surprised at how much of the bitching is coming from people who don't own the phone. At times there were people with devices that were experiencing slow downs, most likely from conflicts with apps installed but these were fixed with in a week.

B) Its seamless. I was worried too but I got all of my contacts from not only my phone but my gmail as well (the two weren't 100% sync'd).

C) Already answered, keep your same email address. This can also be used with iTunes.

D) Apple's app ecosystem is monumentally better at everything than Android's. The Ads are better, none of the apps I have ask constantly for subscriptions, although they do ask. The apps for iOS are quite a bit more costly than Androids though.

E) Don't use it, don't know, sorry.

F) iOS gets major updates yearly (sometimes sooner, sometimes later). As for the kernel? Don't know. But you get these updates on just about every phone, I think they are just now phasing out the 4S.

G) Yes and yes, sometimes better, sometimes not. Maps for example loads much better on iOS but the functions are more detailed on Android.

H) I've gotten away with 64gigs for a while now. I'd recommend the 128 but they only have the 256 now, total over kill! I'd get that if you were upgrading now.

 

[CyberJunk]

iPhone 7 has a crap screen

 

[Aurelius]

iPhone 7 has a crap screen

The lower resolution is the only real knock against it. It's bright, it's extremely color-accurate, it's responsive. Even the contrast ratio is pretty good for an LCD. I do think Apple needs to step its game up with the 2017 iPhone (most likely the iPhone 8), but pixel count is not everything.

 

[Trimlock]

I hope they keep the pixel count the same.

 

[CyberJunk]

Put a s7 side by side with iphone7. The screens are not even close

 

[Aurelius]

Put a s7 side by side with iphone7. The screens are not even close

Only you'll see a color range on the iPhone that you won't on the S7.

I'm not sure why you felt obliged to comment in this thread, actually, since your individual opinion of the screen really doesn't have much bearing on switching from Android to iPhone. If the OP is happy with the iPhone's screen, that's all that matters, isn't it?

 

[Trimlock]

Put a s7 side by side with iphone7. The screens are not even close

Your right, they aren't because they are different screens.

Doesn't make either better than the other. Reviewers seem to like both screens a lot as well. I'll trust reviewers more than anonymous poster on the internet who seems to have an agenda.

 

[Savoy]

I just want to add that I just recently after having to give up two note 7's have the iphone 7 plus a shot. So far I'm almost 3 weeks in and I love it. I got the jet black 7 plus 256 gig and I'm really super happy with the device. I've been with Android subbed the beginning with the G1 do I never ever thought I would be with iOS or apple.

That said the phone flies. I mean the A10 doc in this thing is just phenomenal and iOS is smooth as silk. I loved my note 7 and didn't wanna give it up but this is just as nice in a different way. Like we've been reading for years iOS does less than its Android counter parts but what it does do it does much better and silky smooth. That's from apps to games to general ui usage to the whole ecosystem.

What really blew my was how some Google apps run smoother and better on than on my note 7 or note 5 before that. I have almost every Google app available installed here and it's pretty wild to be honest.

Still I like both Android and now iOS just each ink their own ways. I would not say one Is better than the other but each good in their own unique ways. I know everyone says that but it's because it's pretty much true.

I loved the AMOLED screen on my notes but that doesn't mean this screen is worse. The screen on the IP7 plus is dam nice and crisp. They are different and so losing some resolution on this one doesn't make it less sharp the pixel arrangement is a different layout. They can get away with 1080p because of that and still have it look amazing.

 

[CHANG3D]

I think Aurelius for example have been arguing these points for years. I did reluctantly switched to the iPhone 6 when T-Mo was offering that $15 Jump On Demand deal right before the launch of iPhone 6S last yeat. I really still want a good Nexus or Pixel phone that is dual-sim, if Apple doesn't go dual-sim themselves.

 

[Mad Maxx]

If the iPhone had Android's back and multitask buttons, along with a Nexus or HTC 10 touch sensor, I'd never buy an Android phone again. And, iOS' icons, notifications, etc. still look like they were designed by a kindergarten finger painting class.

 

[Savoy]

If the iPhone had Android's back and multitask buttons, along with a Nexus or HTC 10 touch sensor, I'd never buy an Android phone again. And, iOS' icons, notifications, etc. still look like they were designed by a kindergarten finger painting class.

Well the back button was missed in the begining and I still sometimes look for it without even realizing but I'm getting used to it not being there. I don't understand the touch sensor thing. Do you mean the finger print sensor? If so it's super fast and acurate on the IP7. As far as icons on IOS well icons are what they are. Not terrible not great just what it is. Doesn't factor into my decision as to whether or not I like the phone,os,ui and overall user experience. There's alot more to like than not like with this device. Honestly the thing freaking flies. It is so smooth and fast it's almost silly. I'm completely enamored by the sheer speed and fluidity of the device and I just can't help it.

 

[Mad Maxx]

Well the back button was missed in the begining and I still sometimes look for it without even realizing but I'm getting used to it not being there. I don't understand the touch sensor thing. Do you mean the finger print sensor? If so it's super fast and acurate on the IP7. As far as icons on IOS well icons are what they are. Not terrible not great just what it is. Doesn't factor into my decision as to whether or not I like the phone,os,ui and overall user experience. There's alot more to like than not like with this device. Honestly the thing freaking flies. It is so smooth and fast it's almost silly. I'm completely enamored by the sheer speed and fluidity of the device and I just can't help it.

I've owned iPhones back to the 3GS. The fact that I now own a 7+ proves that the benefits easily overshadow my complaints. The 7/7+ has a decent sensor/home button, but it's not as good as the HTC 10's. Unless you've used it yourself, you wouldn't know. Regardless, my 2 complaints aren't nearly enough to keep me from enjoying my 7+.

 

[Savoy]

I've owned iPhones back to the 3GS. The fact that I now own a 7+ proves that the benefits easily overshadow my complaints. The 7/7+ has a decent sensor/home button, but it's not as good as the HTC 10's. Unless you've used it yourself, you wouldn't know. Regardless, my 2 complaints aren't nearly enough to keep me from enjoying my 7+.

I've never used the HTC 10. I'm not a fan of HTC's devices and haven't been for a while now. My experience comes from the note 5/7 which were also fast with the Note 7 being really fast and acurate.