I've used iPhones for nearly a decade and switched to the Samsung Galaxy S10. Now I understand Android loyalty in a way I never understood before.
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- Business Insider's Jacqui Frank owned only iPhones for nearly a decade, but wasn't impressed by the latest generation of iPhones.
- So she decided to make the switch to the Samsung Galaxy S10.
- We followed her throughout her journey adjusting to Samsung's gestures, camera, and the Android operating system.
- Some of the major features she likes about the phone are the camera, customizations, headphone jack, and swipe-to-call gesture.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Following is a transcript of the video.
Jacqui Frank: I'm not gonna lie to you. I don't know if I know how to take a screenshot on my phone. It's like you swipe your phone sideways, and it like shows you, it's like, "oh, Bixby," and it keeps asking me all these questions. I have no idea what it does. Can I delete it? Does anyone know? Can I remove it from my phone? 'Cause I keep getting notifications, and I don't get it.
I'm Jacqui Frank. I am head of production for "Business Insider Today," and I switched to Samsung from Apple.
I had iPhones for about a decade, and I had never really reevaluated that decision too seriously. I just kept getting iPhones. So I had the 3, the 4, the 5, the 7, and the 8. The change was really in the latest batch of iPhones didn't have anything that I wanted. It was nothing that impressed me. I don't care about Animojis. I don't care about augmented reality. I don't care about live photos. I have no customization, and so I decided to get the S10 because it has a better camera and has a bigger screen. It has more processing power, and if I'm paying money for something, why shouldn't I have the best version?
Everyone who has an iPhone is mad that I've decided to give up on iPhone 'cause it's like some kind of cult of iPhone, and everyone who has an Android is furious with me that I willy-nilly decided to join them 'cause it's this cult of Android. Apparently, I'm not allowed to change my mind at any point, which is something I didn't know.
So I've had the Galaxy S10 for two days. The S10 has this three-camera lineup here, which is unbelievable. We went to scout a location yesterday, and I was able to take this crazy wide shot from the corner and now I can just look at that whenever I'm trying to remember this location. And the other thing, which is a big one, is how attractive all the apps that I've gotten used to are. Like, Instagram just looks a little different. Some of the stupid games I play look a little different, and it's just a better spacing and formatting. I read a lot of books on my phone, and this phone is a little bit taller, and the screen reaches the edges. It's a much better experience than the previous phone was.
I was surprised by how many apps aren't available as far as Android versus iPhone. One of the obvious apps that I couldn't get on the Android versus the iPhone was Rent the Runway, and someone in the office actually told me that there's a workaround that I can get it directly from Rent the Runway, but also, it's never been that hard before. I used to be able to just go on the App Store, and be like, "OK, I'd like to download that app, thank you," and it was done.
I feel like right now, it's a very serious mix between "I'm stupid and I don't know how my phone works," and it's also not as intuitive as what I was used to. I think it's like a solid, like, balance between those two things right now, and once I get a handle on at least one of those parts, maybe I'll be able to figure it out. But right now, that's where I'm at.
2 weeks later ...
I think I prefer Android to iPhone right now. I don't know how comfortable I am leaning into that. It feels like such a betrayal. I definitely expected to fall in the category of being like, "What's the deal with Android? Why do people like it so much?" Desperately trying to get my iPhone back. And that's just not how I feel.
So some of the big things that I like about this phone are the customizations. I feel, with an iPhone, most of the stuff that you can change you really only have an either-or, and for this phone, I feel like I have so many options. You can have the phone light up when you get a text notification. You can change everything about that animation. You can have it go in a different way. You can change the color of it, and you can customize it for each app. So right now, all my text notifications are purple, and I'm obsessed with it.
And I actually was legitimately overwhelmed by how many options I had for the kinds of widgets I could put on my front screen that I gave up after putting on two, and I like that as soon as I turn my phone on is the time, the weather, and how many steps I've taken, which are the things that I, like, sometimes look at my phone to know.
And then big obvious one is that this has a headphone jack. While I was on vacation last week, I could both charge my phone and listen to music at the same time.
I'm super impressed with the camera on this phone. It just was able to capture the colors in the sky and the sand really beautifully, and it did a great job focusing on the fish that I was trying to take pictures of, and it really shouldn't have been able to pick up this beautiful, warm, pink tone of the food that I was eating, and the picture just came out phenomenal.
One of the gestures I really like is the one where you can swipe to call or send messages. Sometimes I can easily just click on that, send a text, and be like, "Did you mean to call me?" And I like that it pulls that up right away. There's one where you, like, put your palm on the phone and then flip it over to silence it. There's a day last week where I overslept by an hour because my alarm never went off because I guess I must have done this and then flipped it over. So that's no longer on. There's one where you wipe across to do a screenshot, and I need someone to explain to me what the purpose of that is. 'Cause I can't figure it out, it seems more complicated.
My brother, a friend of mine from school, and one of my cousins all sent me messages that are randomly strewn through like a real conversation that we're having where they decide that they hate the color green. But I currently don't care at all that they would rather see a blue text than a green text. Like, who cares?
I understand a lot of Android loyalty in a way that I've never understood before, which is that I know a lot, I know a few people who have been dedicated Android users. They've always had an Android phone. They've never wanted to switch to iPhone. I never felt quite that same level of devotion to my iPhone, and I can almost see it with my Android, which I think means I really like it. I'm really working on getting my attitude to be like, "Oh, I don't like this. Can I fix it?" And I'm excited to get to a point where I'm as comfortable and confident with this phone as I ever was with my iPhone.
Volume down and power up. Great, and then it saves it, and then I can go to it, great. I'm amazing. I took a screenshot.